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Class ££2*L 

Bock__ X 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS 



OR 



GENERAL CUSTER IN KANSAS AND TEXAS 



BY 



ELIZABETH B. CUSTER 

AUTHOR OF "FOLLOWING THE GUIDON 
"BOOTS AND SADDLES" ETC. 



ILLUSTRATED 




NEW YORK 
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 

1895 









OTHER WORKS BY MRS. CUSTER. 

" BOOTS AND SADDLES " ; or, Life in Dakota with General 

Custer. Portrait and Map. 
FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. Illustrated. 
Post %vo, Cloth, $1 50 each. 

Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. 

4®= Either of the above works will be sent by mail, postage 
prepaid, to any part of the United States, Canada, or Mexico, 
on receipt of the price. 






d 



Copyright, 1887, by Charles L. Webster & Co. 

All rights reserved. 



TO HIM 

WHOSE BRAVE AND BLITHE ENDURANCE 

MADE THOSE WHO FOLLOWED 

HIM FORGET, 

IN HIS SUNSHINY PRESENCE, 

HALF THE HARDSHIP AND THE DANGER 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I page 

GOOD-BY TO THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC 17 

CHAPTER II 
New Orleans After the War 4 1 

CHAPTER III 
A Military Execution 59 

CHAPTER IV 
Marches Through Pine Forests S3 

CHAPTER V 
Out of the Wilderness 95 

CHAPTER VI 
A Texas Norther Ir 3 

CHAPTER VII 
Life in a Texas Town - 132 

CHAPTER VIII 
Letters Home .150 

CHAPTER IX 
Disturbed Condition of Texas 165 

CHAPTER X 

General Custer Parts with his Staff at Cairo and 

Detroit l8 5 



VlU CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XI page 

Orders to Report at Fort Riley, Kansas 205 

CHAPTER XII 
Westward Ho! — Fighting Dissipation in the Seventh 

Cavalry — General Custer's Temptations .... 222 

CHAPTER XIII 
A Medley of Officers and Men 256 

CHAPTER XIV 
The Course of True Love 279 

CHAPTER XV 

A Prairie Fire . . . . . . . 310 

CHAPTER XVI 
Sacrifices and Self-Denial of Pioneer Duty — Captain 
robbins and colonel cook attacked, and flght 
for Three Hours 327 

CHAPTER XVII 
A Flood at Fort Hays _ . 356 

CHAPTER XVIII 
Ordered Back to Fort Harker 373 

CHAPTER XIX 
The First Fight of the Seventh Cavalry ...... 387 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

Smoking the Pipe of Peace Frontispiece 

Texas in 1866 and in 1886 19 

Eliza Cooking Under Fire 28 

A Mule Lunching from a Pillow 78 

General Custer as a Cadet 87 

"O Golly! whatamdat?" 108 

Measuring an Alligator 125 

General Custer at the Close of the War — Aged 25 ... 168 

" Stand there, cowards, will you, and see an old man 

robbed?" . . 188 

General Custer with his Horse Vic, Stag Hounds and Deer 

Hounds 212 

Kansas in 1866 and Kansas To-day 221 

Conestoga Wagon, or Prairie-Schooner 223 

The Officer's Dress — A New-comer for a Call 239 

A Suspended Equestrienne 246 

General Custer at his Desk in his Library 259 

Gun-stand in General Custer's Library 287 

Trophies of the Chase in General Custer's Library . . . 297 

Whipping Horses to Keep them from Freezing .... 316 

A Match Buffalo Hunt 341 

ix 



X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

Gathering and Counting the Tongues 343 

Supper Given by the Vanquished to the Victors of the 

Match Buffalo Hunt 345 

A Buffalo Undecided as. to an Attack on General Custer . 368 

A Buffalo at Bay 377 

The Addled Letter-Carrier 385 

Negroes Form their own Picket-line 389 

An Attack on a Stage-coach 392 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS 



CHAPTER I. 

GOOD-BY TO THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 

General Custer was given scant time, after the last gun 
of the war was fired, to realize the blessings of peace. While 
others hastened to discard the well-worn uniforms, and don 
again the dress of civilians, hurrying to the cars, and groan- 
ing over the slowness of the fast-flying trains that bore them 
to their homes, my husband was almost breathlessly prepar- 
ing for a long journey to Texas. He did not even see the last 
of that grand review of the 23d and 24th of May, 1865. On 
the first day he was permitted to doff his hat and bow low, as 
he proudly led that superb body of men, the Third Division 
of Cavalry, in front of the grand stand, where sat the " powers 
that be." Along the line of the division, each soldier straight- 
ened himself in the saddle, and felt the proud blood fill his 
veins, as he realized that he was one of those who, in six 
months, had taken 1 1 1 of the enemy's guns, sixty-five battle- 
flags, and upward of 10,000 prisoners of war, while they had 
never lost a flag, or failed to capture a gun for which they 
fought. 

In the afternoon of that memorable day General Custer and 
his staff rode to the outskirts of Washington, where his be- 
loved Third Cavalry Division had encamped after returning 
from taking part in the review. The trumpet was sounded, 
and the call brought these war-worn veterans out once more, 

17 



18 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

not for a charge, not for duty, but to say that word which we, 
who have been compelled to live in its mournful sound so 
many years, dread even to write. Down the line rode their 
yellow-haired " boy general," waving his hat, but setting his 
teeth and trying to hold with iron nerve the quivering mus- 
cles of his speaking face; keeping his eyes wide open, that 
the moisture dimming their vision might not gather and fall. 
Cheer after cheer rose on that soft spring air. Some enthu- 
siastic voice started up afresh, before the hurrahs were done, 
" A tiger for old Curley! " Off came the hats again, and up 
went hundreds of arms, waving the good-by and wafting in- 
numerable blessings after the man who was sending them 
home in a blaze of glory, with a record of which they might 
boast around their firesides. I began to realize, as I watched 
this sad parting, the truth of what the General had been tell- 
ing me; he held that no friendship was like that cemented 
by mutual danger on the battle-field. 

The soldiers, accustomed to suppression through strict mili- 
tary discipline, now vehemently expressed their feelings; and 
though it gladdened the General's heart, it was still the 
hardest sort of work to endure it all without show of emo- 
tion. As he rode up to where I was waiting, he could not, 
dared not, trust himself to speak to me. To those intrepid 
men he was indebted for his success. Their unfailing trust 
in his judgment, their willingness to follow where he led — 
ah! he knew well that one looks upon such men but once in 
a lifetime. Some of the soldiers called out for the General's 
wife. The staff urged me to ride forward to the troops, as it 
was but a little thing thus to respond to their good-by. I 
tried to do so, but after a few steps, I begged those beside 
whom I rode to take me back to where we had been standing. 
I was too overcome, from having seen the suffering on my 
husband's face, to endure any more sorrow. 

As the officers gathered about the General and wrung his 
hand in parting, to my surprise the soldiers gave me a cheer. 
Though very grateful for the tribute to me as their acknowl- 
edged comrade, I did not feel that I deserved it. Hardships 




TEXAS IN 1866 AND IN 1 886. 
*9 



20 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

such as they had suffered for a principle require a far higher 
order of character than the same hardships endured when the 
motive is devotion individualized. 

Once more the General leaped into the saddle, and we rode 
rapidly out of sight. How glad I was, as I watched the set 
features of my husband's face, saw his eyes fixed immovably 
in front of him, listened in vain for one word from his over- 
burdened heart, that I, being a woman, need not tax every 
nerve to suppress emotion, but could let the tears stream 
down my face, on all our silent way back to the city. 

Then began the gathering of our " traps," a hasty collec- 
tion of a few suitable things for a Southern climate, orders 
about shipping the horses, a wild tearing around of the im- 
provident, thoughtless staff — good fighters, but poor provid- 
ers for themselves. Most of them were young men, for 
whom my husband had applied when he was made a briga- 
dier. His first step after his promotion was to write home 
for his schoolmates, or select aides from his early friends then 
in service. It was a comfort, when I found myself grieving 
over the parting with my husband's Division, that our mili- 
tary family were to go with us. At dark we were on the 
cars, with our faces turned southward. To General Custer 
this move had been unexpected. General Sheridan knew 
that he needed little time to decide, so he sent for him as 
soon as we encamped at Arlington, after our march up from 
Richmond, and asked if he would like to take command of 
a division of cavalry on the Red River in Louisiana, and 
march throughout Texas, with the possibility of event- 
ually entering Mexico. Our Government was just then 
thinking it was high time the French knew that if there was 
any invasion of Mexico, with an idea of a complete " gob- 
bling up " of that country, the one to do the seizure and 
gather in the spoils was Brother Jonathan. Very wisely, 
General Custer kept this latter part of the understanding why 
he was sent South from the " weepy " part of his family. 
He preferred transportation by steamer, rather than to be 
floated southward by floods of feminine tears. All I knew 



GOOD-BY TO THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 21 

was, that Texas, having been so outside of the limit where 
the armies marched and fought, was unhappily unaware that 
the war was over, and continued a career of bushwhacking 
and lawlessness that was only tolerated from necessity before 
the surrender, and must now cease. It was considered ex- 
pedient to fit out two detachments of cavalry, and start them 
on a march through the northern and southern portions of 
Texas, as a means of informing that isolated State that dep- 
redations and raids might come to an end. In my mind, 
Texas then seemed the stepping-off place; but I was indiffer- 
ent to the points of the compass, so long as I was not left 
behind. 

The train in which we set out was crowded with a joyous, 
rollicking, irrepressible throng of discharged officers and 
soldiers, going home to make their swords into ploughshares. 
Everybody talked with everybody, and all spoke at once. 
The Babel was unceasing night and day; there was not a 
vein that was not bursting with joy. The swift blood rushed 
into the heart and out again, laden with one glad thought, 
"The war is over! " At the stations, soldiers tumbled out 
and rushed into some woman's waiting arms, while bands 
tooted excited welcomes, no one instrument according with 
another, because of throats overcharged already with bursting 
notes of patriotism that would not be set music. The cus- 
tomary train of street gamins, who imitate all parades and 
promptly copy the pomp of the circus and other processions, 
stepped off in a mimic march, following the conquering heroes 
as they were lost to our sight down the street, going home. 

Sometimes the voices of the hilarious crowd at the station 
were stilled, and a hush of reverent silence preceded the care- 
ful lifting from the car of a stretcher bearing a form broken 
and bleeding from wounds, willingly borne, that the home 
to which he was coming might be unharmed. Tender wo- 
men received and hovered lovingly over the precious freight, 
strong arms carried him away; and we contrasted the devoted 
care, the love that would teach new ways to heal, with the 
condition of the poor fellows we had left in the crowded 



22 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Washington hospitals, attended only by strangers. Some of 
the broken-to-pieces soldiers were on our train, so deftly 
mended that they stumped their way down the platform, and 
began their one-legged tramp through life, amidst the loud 
huzzas that a maimed hero then received. They even joked 
about their misfortunes. I remember one undaunted fellow, 
with the fresh color of buoyant youth beginning again to dye 
his cheek, even after the amputation of a leg, which so de- 
pletes the system. He said some grave words of wisdom to 
me in such a roguish way, and followed up his counsel by 
adding, " You ought to heed such advice from a man with 
one foot in the grave. " 

We missed all the home-coming, all the glorification award- 
ed to the hero. General Custer said no word of regret. He 
had accepted the offer for further active service, and grate- 
fully thanked his chief for giving him the opportunity. I, 
however, should have liked to have him get some of the cele- 
brations that our country was then showering on its defend- 
ers. I missed the bonfires, the processions, the public meet- 
ing of distinguished citizens, who eloquently thanked the 
veterans, the editorials that lauded each townsman's deed, 
the poetry in the corner of the newspaper that was dedicated 
to a hero, the overflow of a woman's heart singing praise to 
her military idol. But the cannon were fired, the drums beat, 
the music sounded for all but us. Offices of trust were of- 
fered at once to men coming home to private life, and towns 
and cities felt themselves honored because some one of their 
number had gone out and made himself so glorious a name 
that his very home became celebrated. He was made the 
mayor, or the Congressman, and given a home which it 
would have taken him many years of hard work to earn. 
Song, story and history have long recounted what a hero is 
to a woman. Imagination pictured to my eye troops of 
beautiful women gathering around each gallant soldier on 
his return. The adoring eyes spoke admiration, while the 
tongue subtly wove, in many a sentence, its meed of praise. 
The General and his staff of boys, loving and reverencing 



GOOD-BY TO THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 23 

women, missed what men wisely count the sweetest of adula- 
tion. One weather-beaten slip of a girl had to do all their 
banqueting, cannonading, bonfiring, brass-banding, and gen- 
eral hallelujahs all the way to Texas, and — yes, even after we 
got there; for the Southern women, true to their idea of pa- 
triotism, turned their pretty faces away from our handsome 
fellows, and resisted, for a long time, even the mildest flirtation. 

The drawing-room car was then unthought of in the minds 
of those who plan new luxuries as our race demand more 
ease and elegance. There was a ladies' car, to which no men 
unaccompanied by women were admitted. It was never so 
full as the other coaches, and was much cleaner and better 
ventilated. 

This was at first a damper to the enjoyment of a military 
family, who lost no opportunity of being together, for it com- 
pelled the men to remain in the other cars. The scamp 
among us devised a plan to outwit the brakemen; he bor- 
rowed my bag just before we were obliged to change cars, 
and after waiting till the General and I were safely seated, 
boldly walked up and demanded entrance, on the plea that 
he had a lady inside. This scheme worked so well that the 
others took up the cue, and my cloak, bag, umbrella, lunch- 
basket, and parcel of books and papers were distributed 
among the rest before we stopped, and were used to obtain 
entrance into the better car. Even our faithful servant, Eliza, 
was unexpectedly overwhelmed with urgent offers of assist- 
ance; for she always went with us, and sat by the door. 
This plan was a great success, in so far as it kept our party 
together, but it proved disastrous to me, as the scamp forgot 
my bag at some station, and I was minus all those hundred- 
and-one articles that seem indispensable to a traveler's com- 
fort. In that plight I had to journey until, in some merciful 
detention, we had an hour in which to seek out a shop, and 
hastily make the necessary purchases. 

At one of our stops for dinner we all made the usual rush 
for the dining-hall, as in the confusion of over-laden trains 
at that excited time it was necessary to hurry, and, besides, 



24 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

as there were delays and irregularities in traveling, on account 
of the home-coming of the troops, we never knew how long 
it might be before the next eating-house was reached. The 
General insisted upon Eliza's going right with us, as no other 
table was provided. The proprietor, already rendered indif- 
ferent to people's comfort by his extraordinary gains, said 
there was no table for servants. Eliza, the best-bred of maids, 
begged to go back dinnerless into the car, but the General 
insisted on her sitting down between us at the crowded table. 
A position so unusual, and to her so totally out of place, 
made her appetite waver, and it vanished entirely when the 
proprietor came, and told the General that no colored folks 
could be allowed at his table. My husband quietly replied 
that he had been obliged to give the woman that place, as 
the house had provided no other. The determined man still 
stood threateningly over us, demanding her removal, and 
Eliza uneasily and nervously tried to go. I trembled, and 
the fork failed to carry the food, owing to a very wobbly arm. 
The General firmly refused, the staff rose about us, and all 
along the table up sprang men we had supposed to be citizens, 
as they were in the dress of civilians. " General, stand your 
ground; we'll back you; the woman shall have food." How 
little we realize in these piping times of peace, how great a 
flame a little fire kindled in those agitating days. The pro- 
prietor slunk back to his desk; the General and his hungry 
staff went on eating as calmly as ever; Eliza hung her em- 
barrassed head, and her mistress idly twirled her useless fork 
— while the proprietor made $1.50 clear gain on two women 
that were too frightened to swallow a mouthful. I spread a 
sandwich for Eliza, while the General, mindful of the return- 
ing hunger of the terrified woman, and perfectly indifferent 
as to making himself ridiculous with parcels, marched by the 
infuriated but subdued bully, with either a whole pie or some 
such modest capture in his hand. We had put some hours 
of travel between ourselves and the " twenty-minutes-for-din- 
ner " place which came so near being a battle-ground, before 
Eliza could eat what we had brought for her. 



GOOD-BY TO THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 25 

I wonder if any one is waiting for me to say that this inci- 
dent happened south of the Mason and Dixon line. It did 
not. It was in Ohio — I don't remember the place. After 
all, the memory over which one complains, when he finds 
how little he can recall, has its advantages. It hopelessly 
buries the names of persons and places, when one starts to 
tell tales out of school. It is like extracting the fangs from 
a rattlesnake; the reptile, like the story, may be very disagree- 
able, but I can only hope that a tale unadorned with names 
or places is as harmless as a snake with its poison withdrawn. 

I must stop a moment and give our Eliza, on whom this 
battle was waged, a little space in this story, for she occupied 
no small part in the events of the six years after; and when 
she left us and took an upward step in life by marrying a color- 
ed lawyer, I could not reconcile myself to the loss; and though 
she has lived through all the grandeur of a union with a 
man " who gets a heap of money for his speeches in politics, 
and brass bands to meet him at the stations, Miss Libbie," 
she came to my little home not long since with tears of 
joy illuminating the bright bronze of her expressive face. 
It reminded me so of the first time I knew that the negro 
race regarded shades of color as a distinctive feature, a beauty 
or a blemish, as it might be. Eliza stood in front of a bronze 
medallion of my husband when it was first sent from the 
artist's in 1865, and amused him hugely, by saying, in that 
partnership manner she had in our affairs, " Why, Ginnel, it's 
jest my color." After that, I noticed that she referred to her 
race according to the deepness of tint, telling me, with scorn, 
of one of her numerous suitors: " Why, Miss Libbie, he need- 
ent think to shine up to me; he's nothing but a black Afri- 
can." I am thus introducing Eliza, color and all, that she 
may not seem the vague character of other days; and whoever 
chances to meet her will find in her a good war historian, a 
modest chronicler of a really self-dying and courageous life. 
It was rather a surprise to me that she was not an old woman 
when I saw her again this autumn, after so many years, but 
she is not yet fifty. I imagine she did so much mothering 



26 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

in those days when she comforted me in my loneliness, and 
quieted me in my frights, that I counted her old even then. 

Eliza requests that she be permitted to make her little bow 
to the reader, and repeat a wish of hers that I take great 
pains in quoting her, and not represent her as saying, " like 
field-hands, whar and l/iar." She says her people in Vir- 
ginia, whom she reverences and loves, always taught her not 
to say "them words; and if they should see what I have told 
you they'd feel bad to think I forgot." \iwhar and thar ap- 
pear occasionally in my efforts to transfer her literally to 
these pages, it is only a lapsus lingua; on her part. Besides, 
she has lived North so long now, there is not that distinctive 
dialect peculiar to the Southern servant. In her excitement, 
narrating our scenes of danger or pleasure or merriment, she 
occasionally drops into expressions that belonged to her 
early life. It is the fault of her historian if these phrases get 
into print. To me they are charming, for they are Eliza in 
undress uniform — Eliza without her company manners. 

She describes her leaving the old plantation during war 
times: "I jined the Ginnel at Amosville, Rappahannock 
County, in August, 1863. Everybody was excited over free- 
dom, and I wanted to see how it was. Everybody keeps ask- 
ing me why I left. I can't see why they can't recollect what 
war was for, and that we was all bound to try and see for 
ourselves how it was. After the 'Mancipation, everybody 
wasa-standin' up for liberty, and I wasent goin' to .stay home 
when everybody else was a-goin'. The day I came into 
camp, there was a good many other darkeys from all about 
our place. We wasa-standin' round waitin' when I first seed 
the Ginnel. 

" He and Captain Lyon cum up to me, and the Ginnel 
says, 'Well, what's your name!' I told him Eliza; and he 
says, looking me all over fust, ' Well, Eliza, would you like 
to cum and live with me? ' I waited a minute, Miss Libbie. 
I looked him all over, too, and finally I sez, ' I reckon I 
would.' So the bargain was fixed up. But, oh, how awful 
lonesome I was at fust, and I was afraid of everything in the 



GOOD-BY TO THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 2J 

shape of war. I used to wish myself back on the old planta- 
tion with my mother. I was mighty glad when you cum, 
Miss Libbie. Why, sometimes I never sot eyes on a woman 
for weeks at a time." 

Eliza's story of her war life is too long for these pages; but 
in spite of her confession of being so " 'fraid,"she was a mar- 
vel of courage. She was captured by the enemy, escaped, 
and found her way back after sunset to the General's camp. 
She had strange and narrow escapes. She says, quaintly : 
"Well, Miss Libbie, I set in to see the war, beginning and- 
end. There was many niggers that cut into cities and hud- 
dled upthar, and laid around and saw hard times; but I went 
to see the end, and I stuck it out. I alius thought this, that 
I didn't set down to wait to have 'em all free ?tie. I helped 
to free myself. I was all ready to step to the front whenever 
I was called upon, even if I didn't shoulder the musket. 
Well, I went to the end, and there's many folks says that a 
woman can't follow the army without throwing themselves 
away, but I know better. I went in, and I cum out with the 
respect of the men and the officers." 

Eliza often cooked under fire, and only lately one of the 
General's staff, recounting war days, described her as she was 
preparing the General's dinner in the field. A shell would 
burst near her; she would turn her head in anger at being 
disturbed, unconscious that she was observed, begin to growl 
to herself about being obliged to move, but take up her ket- 
tle and frying-pan, march farther away, make a new fire, and 
begin cooking as unperturbed as if it were an ordinary dis- 
turbance instead of a sky filled with bits of falling shell. I 
do not repeat that polite fiction of having been on the spot, 
as neither the artist nor I had Eliza's grit or pluck; but we 
arranged the camp-kettle, and Eliza fell into the exact ex- 
pression, as she volubly began telling the tale of " how mad 
those busting shells used to make her." It is an excellent 
likeness, even though Eliza objects to the bandana, which 
she has abandoned in her new position; and I must not for- 
get that I found her one day turning her head critically from 



^syl 




ELIZA COOKING UNDER FIRE. 
28 



GOOD-BV TO THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 29 

side to side looking at her picture; and, out of regard to her, 
will mention that her nose, of which she is very proud, is, 
she fears, a touch too flat in the sketch. She speaks of her 
dress as "completely whittled out with bullets," but she 
would like me to mention that "she don't wear them rags 
now." 

When Eliza reached New York this past autumn, she told 
me, when I asked her to choose where she would go, as my 
time was to be entirely given to her, that she wanted first to 
go to the Fifth Avenue Hotel and see if it looked just the 
same as it did " when you was a bride, Miss Libbie, and the 
Ginnel took you and me there on leave of absence." We 
went through the halls and drawing-rooms, narrowly watched 
by the major-domo, who stands guard over tramps, but for- 
tified by my voice, she " oh'd " and " ah'd " over its gran- 
deur to her heart's content. One day I left her in Madison 
Square, to go on a business errand, and cautioned her not to 
stray away. When I returned I asked anxiously, " Did any 
one speak to you, Eliza?" " Everybody, Miss Libbie," as 
nonchalant and as complacent as if it were her idea of New 
York hospitality. Then she begged me to go round the 
Square, " to hunt a lady from Avenue A, who see'd you pass 
with me, Miss Libbie, and said she knowed you was a lady, 
though I reckon she couldn't 'count for me and you bein' to- 
gether." We found the Avenue A lady, and I was present- 
ed, and, to her satisfaction, admired the baby that had been 
brought over to that blessed breathing-place of our city. 

The Elevated railroad was a surprise to Eliza. She " didn't 
believe it would be so high." At that celebrated curve on the 
Sixth Avenue line, where Monsieur de Lesseps, even, exclaim- 
ed, " Mon Dieu ! but the Americans are a brave people," 
the poor, frightened woman clung to me and whispered, 
" Miss Libbie, couldn't we get down anyway? Miss Libbie, 
I'se seed enough. I can tell the folks at home all about it 
now. Oh, I never did 'spect to be so near heaven till I went 
up for good." 

At the Brooklyn Bridge she demurred. She is so intelli- 



30 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

gent that I wanted to have her see the shipping, the wharves, 
the harbor, and the statue of Liberty; but nothing kept her 
from flight save her desire to tell her townspeople that she 
had seen the place where the crank jumped off. The police- 
man, in answer to my inquiry, commanded us in martial 
tones to stay still till he said the word; and when the wagon 
crossing passed the spot, and the maintainer of the peace 
said "Now!" Eliza shivered and whispered, "Now, let's 
go home, Miss Libbie. I dun took the cullud part of the 
town fo' I come; the white folks hain't seen what I has, and 
they'll be took when I tell em;" and off she toddled, for Eliza 
is not the slender woman I once knew her. 

Her description of the Wild West exhibition was most droll. 
I sent her down because we had lived through so many of the 
scenes depicted, and I felt sure that nothing would recall so 
vividly the life on the frontier as that most realistic and faith- 
ful representation of a Western life that has ceased to be, 
with advancing civilization. She went to Mr. Cody's tent 
after the exhibition, to present my card of introduction, for 
he had served as General Custer's scout after Eliza left us, 
and she was, therefore, unknown to him except by hearsay. 
They had twenty subjects in common; for Eliza, in her way, 
was as deserving of praise as was the courageous Cody. She 
was delighted with all she saw, and on her return her de- 
scription of it, mingled with imitations of the voices of the 
hawkers and the performers, was so incoherent that it pre- 
sented only a confused jumble to my ears. The buffalo were 
a surprise, a wonderful revival to her of those hunting-days 
when our plains were darkened by the herds. " When the 
buffalo cum in, I was ready to leap up and holler, Miss Lib- 
bie; it 'minded me of ole times. They made me think of 
the fifteen the Ginnel fust struck in Kansas. He jest pushed 
down his ole hat, and went after 'em linkety-clink. Well, 
Miss Libbie, when Mr. Cody come up, I see at once his back 
and hips was built precisely like the Ginnel, and when I come 
on to his tent, I jest said to him: ' Mr. Buffalo Bill, when 
you cum up to the stand and wheeled round, I said to myself, 



GOOD-BY TO THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 31 

" Well, if he ain't the 'spress image of Ginnel Custer in bat- 
tle I never seed any one that was! " ' I jest wish he'd come to 
my town. and give a show ! He could have the hull fair- 
ground there. My ! he could raise money so fast 'twouldn't 
take him long to pay for a church. And the shootin' and 
ridin' ! why, Miss Libbie, when I seed one of them ponies 
brought out, I know'd he was one of the hatefulest, sulki- 
est ponies that ever lived. He was a-prancin' and curvin', 
and he jest stretched his ole neck and throwed the men as 
fast as ever they got on." 

After we had strolled through the streets for many days, 
Eliza always amusing me by her droll comments, she said to 
me one day: " Miss Libbie, you don't take notice, when me 
and you's walking on, a-lookin' into shop-windows and 
a-gazin' at the new things I never see before, how the folks 
does stare at us. But I see 'em a-gazin', and I can see 'em 
a-ponderin' and sayin' to theirsel's, ' Well, I do declar'! that's 
a lady, there ain't no manner of doubt. She's one of the 
bong tong; but whatever she's a-doin' with that old scrub 
nigger, I can't make out.' " I can hardly express what a rec- 
reation and delight it was to go about with this humorous 
woman and listen to her comments, her unique criticisms, 
her grateful delight, when she turned on the street to say: 
" Oh, what a good time me and you is having, Miss Libbie, 
and how I will 'stonish them people at home ! " The best of 
it all was the manner in which she brought back our past, 
and the hundred small events we recalled, which were made 
more vivid by the imitation of voice, walk, gesture she gave 
in speaking of those we followed in the old marching days. 

On this journey to Texas some accident happened to our 
engine, and detained us all night. We campaigners, accus- 
tomed to all sorts of unexpected inconveniences, had learned 
not to mind discomforts. Each officer sank out of sight into 
his great-coat collar, and slept on by the hour, while I slum- 
bered till morning, curled up in a heap, thankful to have the 
luxury of one seat to myself. We rather gloried over the 
citizens who tramped up and down the aisle, groaning and 



32 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

becoming more emphatic in their language as the night ad- 
vanced, indulging in the belief that the women were too 
sound asleep to hear them. I wakened enough to hear one 
old man say, fretfully, and with many adjectives: " Just see 
how those army folks sleep; they can tumbledown anywhere, 
while I am so lame and sore, from the cramped-up place I 
am in, I can't even doze." As morning came we noticed our 
scamp at the other end of the car, with his legs stretched 
comfortably on the seat turned over in front of him. All 
this unusual luxury he accounted for afterward, by telling us 
the trick that his ingenuity had suggested to obtain more 
room. "You see," the wag said, "two old codgers sat 
down in front of my pal and me, late last night, and went on 
counting up their gains in the rise of corn, owing to the war, 
which, to say the least, was harrowing to us poor devils who 
had fought the battles that had made them rich and left us 
without a 'red.' I concluded, if that was all they had done 
for their country, two of its brave defenders had more of a 

right to the seat than they had. I just turned to H and 

began solemnly to talk about what store I set by my old 
army coat, then on the seat, they occupied; said I couldn't 
give it up, though I had been obliged to cover a comrade 
who had died of small-pox, I not being afraid of contagion, 
having had varioloid. Well, I got that far when the eyes of 
the old galoots started out of their heads, and they vamoosed 
the ranche, I can tell you, and I saw them peering through 
the window at the end of the next car, the horror still in their 
faces." The General exploded with merriment. How strange 
it seems, to contrast those noisy, boisterous times, when ev- 
erybody shouted with laughter, called loudly from one end 
of the car to the other, told stories for the whole public to 
hear, and sang war-songs, with the quiet, orderly travelers of 
nowadays, who, even in the tremor of meeting or parting, 
speak below their breath, and, ashamed of emotion, quickly 
wink back to its source the prehistoric tear. 

We bade good-by to railroads at Louisville, and the jouney- 
ing south was then made by steamer. How peculiar it seemed 



GOOD-BY TO THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 33 

to us, accustomed as we were to lake craft with deep hulls, 
to see for the first time those flat-bottomed boats drawing so 
little water, with several stories, and upper decks loaded with 
freight. I could hardly rid myself of the fear that, being so 
top-heavy, we would blow over. The tempests of our west- 
ern lakes were then my only idea of sailing weather. Then 
the long, sloping levees, the preparations for the rise of water, 
the strange sensation, when the river was high, of looking 
over the embankment, down upon the earth ! It is a novel 
feeling to be for the first time on a great river, with such a 
current as the Mississippi flowing on above the level of the 
plantations, hemmed in by an embankment on either side. 
Though we saw the manner of its construction at one point 
where the levee was being repaired, and found how firmly 
and substantially the earth was fortified with stone and logs 
against the river, it still seemed to me an unnatural sort of 
voyaging to be above the level of the ground; and my tremors 
on the subject, and other novel experiences, were instantly 
made use of as a new and fruitful source of practical jokes. 
For instance, the steamer bumped into the shore anywhere 
it happened to be wooded, and an army of negroes appeared, 
running over the gang-plank like ants. Sometimes at night 
the pine torches, and the resinous knots burning in iron 
baskets slung over the side of the boat, made a weird and 
gruesome sight, the shadows were so black, the streams of 
light so intense, while the hurrying negroes loaded on the 
wood, under the brutal voice of a steamer's mate. Once a 
negro fell in. They made a pretense of rescuing him, gave 
it up soon, and up hurried our scamp to the upper deck to 
tell me the horrible tale. He had good command of lan- 
guage, and allowed no scruples to spoil a story. After that 
I imagined, at every night wood-lading, some poor soul was 
swept down under the boat and off into eternity. The Gen- 
eral was sorry for me, and sometimes, when I imagined the 
calls of the crew to be the despairing wail of a dying man, 
he made pilgrimages, for my sake, to the lower deck to make 
sure that no one was drowned. My imaginings were not 



34 TENTING ON THE TLAINS. 

always so respected, for the occasion gave too good an oppor- 
tunity for a joke, to be passed quietly by. The scamp and 
my husband put their heads together soon after this, and 
prepared a tale for the "old lady," as they called me. As 
we were about to make a landing, they ran to me and said, 
" Come, Libbie, hurry up ! hurry up ! You'll miss the fun if 
you don't scrabble." "Miss what?" was my very natural 
question, and exactly the reply they wanted me to make. 
" Why, they're going to bury a dead man when we land." I 
exclaimed in horror, "Another man drowned? how can 
you speak so irreverently of death ? " With a " do you sup- 
pose the mate cares for one darkey more or less ? " they drag- 
ged me to the deck. There 1 saw the great cable which was 
used to tie us up, fastened to a strong spar, the two ends of 
which were buried in the bank. The ground was hollowed 
out underneath the centre, and the rope slipped under to 
fasten it around the log. After I had watched this process 
of securing our boat to the shore, these irrepressibles said, 
solemnly, "The sad ceremony is now ended, and no other 
will take place till we tie up at the next stop." When it 
dawned upon me that "tying up" was called, in steamer 
vernacular, " burying a dead man," my eyes returned to their 
proper place in the sockets, breath came back, and indigna- 
tion filled my soul. Language deserts us at such moments, 
and I resorted to force. 

The Ruth was accounted one of the largest and most beauti- 
ful steamers that had ever been on the Mississippi River, her 
expenses being $1,000 a day. The decorations were sumptu- 
ous, and we enjoyed every luxury. We ate our dinners to 
very good music, which the boat furnished. We had been 
on plain fare too long not to watch with eagerness the arrival 
of the procession of white-coated negro waiters, who each 
day came in from the pastry-cook with some new device in 
cake, ices, or confectionery. There was a beautiful Ruth 
gleaning in a field, in a painting that filled the semicircle 
over the entrance of the cabin. Ruths with sheaves held up 
the branches of the chandeliers, while the pretty gleaner 



GOOD-BY TO THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 35 

looked out from the glass of the stateroom doors. The cap- 
tain being very patient as well as polite, we pervaded every 
corner of the great boat. The General and his boy-soldiers 
were too accustomed to activity to be quiet in the cabin. 
Even that unapproachable man at the wheel yielded to our 
longing eyes, and-let us into his round tower. Oh, how good 
he was to me ! The General took me up there, and the pilot 
made a place for us, where, with my bit of work, I listened 
for hours to his stories. My husband made fifty trips up and 
down, sometimes detained when we were nearing an interest- 
ing point, to hear the story of the crevasse. Such tales were 
thrilling enough even for him, accustomed as he then was to 
the most exciting scenes. The pilot pointed out places 
where the river, wild with the rush and fury of spring fresh- 
ets, had burst its way through the levees, and, sweeping over 
a peninsula, returned to the channel beyond, utterly anni- 
hilating and sinking out of sight forever the ground where 
happy people had lived on their plantations. It was a sad 
time to take that journey, and even in the midst of our in- 
tense enjoyment of the novelty of the trip, the freedom from 
anxiety, and the absence of responsibility of any kind, I re- 
call how the General grieved over the destruction of planta- 
tions by the breaks in the levee. The work on these embank- 
ments was done by assessment, I think. They were cared 
for as our roads and bridges are kept in order, and when men 
were absent in the war, only the negroes were left to attend 
to the repairing. But the inundations then were slight, com- 
pared with many from which the State has since suffered. 
In 1874 thirty parishes were either wholly or partly overflowed 
by an extraordinary rise in the river. On our trip we saw one 
plantation after another submerged, the grand old houses 
abandoned, and standing in lakes of water, while the negro 
quarters and barns were almost out of sight. Sometimes the 
cattle huddled on a little rise of ground, helpless and pitiful. 
We wished, as we used to do in that beautiful Shenandoah 
Valley, that if wars must come, the devastation of homes 
might be avoided; and I usually added, with one of the 



36 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

totally impracticable suggestions conjured up by a woman, 
that battles might be fought in desert places. 

A Southern woman, who afterward entertained us, de- 
scribed, in the graphic and varied language which is their 
gift, the breaking of the levee on their own plantation. How 
stealthily the small stream of water crept on and on, until 
their first warning was its serpent-like progress past their 
house. Then the excitement and rush of all the household 
to the crevasse, the hasty gathering in of the field-hands, 
and the homely devices for stopping the break until more 
substantial materials could be gathered. It was a race for 
life on all sides. Each one, old or young, knew that his 
safety depended on the superhuman effort of the first hour of 
danger. In our safe homes we scarcely realize what it would 
be to look out from our windows upon, what seemed to me, 
a small and insufficient mound of earth stretching along the 
frontage of an estate, and know that it was our only rampart 
against a rushing flood, which seemed human in its revenge- 
ful desire to engulf us. 

The General was intensely interested in those portions of 
the country where both naval and land warfare had been 
carried on. At Island No. 10, and Fort Pillow especially, 
there seemed, even then, no evidence that fighting had gone 
on so lately. The luxuriant vegetation of the South had 
covered the fortifications; nature seemed hastening to throw 
a mantle over soil that had so lately been reddened with such 
a precious dye. The fighting had been so desperate at the 
latter point, it is reported the Confederate General Forrest 
said: "The river was dyed with the blood of the slaughtered 
for two hundred yards. " 

At one of our stops on the route, the Confederate General 
Hood came on board, to go to a town a short distance be- 
low, and my husband, hearing he was on the boat, hastened 
to seek him out and introduce himself. Such reunions have 
now become common, I am thankful to say, but I confess to 
watching curiously every expression of those men, as it seemed 
very early, in those times of excited and vehement conduct, 



GOOD-BY TO THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC 



37 



to begin such overtures. And yet I did not forget that my 
husband sent messages of friendship to his classmates on the 
other side throughout the war. As I watched this meeting, 
they looked, while they grasped each other's hand, as if they 
were old-time friends happily united. After they had carried 
on an animated conversation for awhile, my husband, always 
thinking how to share his enjoyment, hurried to bring me 
into the group. General Custer had already taught me, even 
in those bitter times, that he knew his classmates fought 
from their convictions of right, and that, now the war was 
over, I must not be adding fuel to a fire that both sides 
should strive to smother. 

General Hood was tall, fair, dignified and soldierly. He 
used his crutch with difficulty, and it was an effort for him 
to rise when I was presented. We three instantly resumed 
the war talk that my coming had interrupted. The men 
plied each other with questions as to the situation of troops 
at certain engagements, and the General fairly bombarded 
General Hood with inquiries about the action on their side 
in different campaigns. At that time nothing had been 
written for Northern papers and magazines by the South. All 
we knew was from the brief accounts in the Southern news- 
papers that our pickets exchanged, and from papers cap- 
tured or received from Europe by way of blockade-runners. 
We were greatly amused by the comical manner in which 
General Hood described his efforts to suit himself to an arti- 
ficial leg, after he had contributed his own to his beloved 
cause. In his campaigns he was obliged to carry an extra 
one, in case of accident to the one he wore, which was 
strapped to his led horse. He asked me to picture the sur- 
prise of the troops who captured all the reserve horses at 
one time, and found this false leg of his suspended from 
the saddle. He said he had tried five, at different times, 
to see which of the inventions was lightest and easiest 
to wear; " and I am obliged to confess, Mrs. Custer, much 
as you may imagine it goes against me to do so, that of 
the five— English, German, French, Yankee and Confed- 



38 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

erate— the Yankee leg was the best of all." When Gen- 
eral Custer carefully helped the maimed hero down the 
cabin stairs and over the gangway, we bade him good-by 
with real regret — so quickly do soldiers make and cement a 
friendship when both find the same qualities to admire in 
each other. 

The novelty of Mississippi travel kept even our active, 
restless party interested. One of our number played guitar ac- 
companiments, and we sang choruses on deck at night, forget- 
ting that the war-songs might grate on the ears of some of the 
people about us. The captain and steamer's crew allowed 
us to roam up and down the boat at will, and when we found, 
by the map or crew, that we were about to touch the bank 
in a hitherto unvisited State, we were the first to run over 
the gang-plank and caper up and down the soil, to add a new 
State to our fast-swelling list of those in which we had been. 
We rather wondered, though, what we would do if asked 
questions by our elders at home as to what we thought of 
Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee, as we had only scam- 
pered on and off the river bank of those States while the 
wooding went on. We were like children let out of school, 
and everything interested us. Even the low water was an 
event. The sudden stop of our great steamer, which, large 
as it was, drew but a few feet of water, made the timbers 
groan and the machinery creak. Then we took ourselves to 
the bow, where the captain, mate and deck-hands were pre- 
paring for a siege, as the force of the engines had ploughed 
us deep into a sand-bar. There was wrenching, veering and 
struggling of the huge boat; and at last a resort to those two 
spars which seem to be so uselessly attached to each side of 
the forward deck of the river steamers. These were swung 
out and plunged into the bank, the rope and tackle put into 
use, and with the aid of these stilts we were skipped over the 
sand-bar into the deeper water. It was on that journey that 
I first heard the name Mr. Clemens took as his nomde plume. 
The droning voice of the sailor taking soundings, as we 
slowly crept through low water, called out, "Mark twain !" 



GOOD-BY TO THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 39 

and the pilot answered by steering the boat according to the 
story of the plumb-line. 

The trip on a Mississippi steamer, as we knew it, is npw 
one of the things of the past. It was accounted then, and 
before the war, our most luxurious mode of travel. Every 
one was sociable, and in the constant association of the long 
trip some warm friendships sprung up. We had then our 
first acquaintance with Bostonians as well as with Southern- 
ers. Of course, it was too soon for Southern women, robbed 
of home, and even the necessities of life, by the cruelty of 
war, to be wholly cordial. We were more and more amazed 
at the ignorance in the South concerning the North. A 
young girl, otherwise intelligent, thawed out enough to con- 
fess to me that she had really no idea that Yankee soldiers 
were like their own physically. She imagined they would be 
as widely different as black from white, and a sort of combi- 
nation of gorilla and chimpanzee. Gunboats had but a short 
time before moored at the levee that bounded her grand- 
mother's plantation, and the negroes ran into the house cry- 
ing the terrible news of the approach of the enemy. The 
very thought of a Yankee was abhorrent; but the girl, more 
absorbed with curiosity than fear, slipped out of the house to 
where a view of the walk from the landing was to be had, 
and, seeing a naval officer approaching, raced back to her 
grandmother, crying out in surprise at finding a being like 
unto her own people, " Why, it's a man !" 

As we approached New Orleans the plantations grew rich- 
er. The palmetto and the orange, by which we are " twice 
blessed " in its simultaneous blossom and fruit; the oleander, 
treasured in conservatories at home, here growing to tree 
size along the country roads, all charmed us. The wide gal- 
leries around the two stories of the houses were a delight. 
The course of our boat was often near enough the shore for 
us to see the family gathered around the supper-table spread 
ion the upper gallery, which was protected from the sun by 
blinds or shades of matting. 

We left the steamer at New Orleans with regret. It seems, 



40 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

even now, that it is rather too bad we have grown into so 
hurried a race that we cannot spare the time to travel as lei- 
surely or luxuriously as we did then. Even pleasure-seekers 
going off for a tour, when they are not restricted by time nor 
mode of journeying, study the time-tables closely, to see by 
which route the quickest passage can be made. 



CHAPTER II. 

NEW ORLEANS AFTER THE WAR. 

We were detained, by orders, for a little time in New Or- 
leans, and the General was enthusiastic over the city. All 
day we strolled through the streets, visiting the French quar- 
ter, contrasting the foreign shopkeepers — who were never 
too hurried to be polite — with our brusque, business-like 
Northern clerk; dined in the charming French restaurants, 
where we saw eating made a fine art. The sea-food was then 
new to me, and I hovered over the crabs, lobsters and shrimps, 
but remember how amused the General was by my quick 
retreat from a huge live green turtle, whose locomotion was 
suspended by his being turned upon his back. He was un- 
consciously bearing his own epitaph fastened upon his shell: 
"I will be served up for dinner at 5 P. M." We of course 
spent hours, even matutinal hours, at the market, and the 
General drank so much coffee that the old mammy who 
served him said many a " Mon Dieu ! " in surprise at his 
capacity, and volubly described in French to her neighbors 
what marvels a Yankee man could do in coffee-sipping. For 
years after, when very good coffee was praised, or even Eliza's 
strongly commended, his ne plus ultra was, " Almost equal 
to the French market. " We here learned what artistic effects 
could be produced with prosaic carrots, beets, onions and 
turnips. The General looked with wonder upon the leisure- 
ly Creole grandee who came to order his own dinner. After 
his epicurean selection he showed the interest and skill that 
a Northern man might in the buying of a picture or a horse, 
when the servant bearing the basket was entrusted with what 

41 



42 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

was to be enjoyed at night. We had never known men that 
took time to market, except as our hurried Northern fathers 
of families sometimes made sudden raids upon the butcher, 
on the way to business, and called off an order as they ran 
for a car. 

The wide-terraced Canal Street, with its throng of leisure- 
ly promenaders, was our daily resort. The stands of Parma 
violets on the street corners perfumed the whole block, and 
the war seemed not even to have cast a cloud over the first 
foreign pleasure -loving people we had seen. The General 
was so pleased with the picturesque costumes of the servants 
that Eliza was put into a turban at his entreaty. In vain we 
tried for a glimpse of the Creole beauties. The duenna that 
guarded them in their rare promenades, as they glided by, 
wearing gracefully the lace mantilla, bonnetless, and chaded 
by a French parasol, whisked the pretty things out of sight, 
quick as we were to discover and respectfully follow them. 
The effects of General Butler's reign were still visible in the 
marvelous cleanliness of the city. We drove on the shell 
road, spent hours in the horse-cars, went to the theatres, and 
even penetrated the rooms of the most exclusive milliners, 
for General Custer liked the shops as much as I did. Indeed, 
we had a grand play-day, and were not in the least troubled 
at our detention. 

General Scott was then in our hotel, about to set out for 
the North. He remembered Lieutenant Custer, who had 
reported to him in 1861, and was the bearer of despatches 
sent by him to the front, and he congratulated my husband 
on his career in terms that, coming from such a veteran, 
made his boy-heart leap for joy. General Scott was then 
very infirm, and, expressing a wish to see me, with old-time 
gallantry begged my husband to explain to me that he would 
be compelled to claim the privilege of sitting. But it was too 
much for his etiquettical instincts, and, weak as he was, he 
feebly drew his tall form to a half-standing position, leaning 
against the lounge as I entered. Pictures of General Scott, 
in my father's home, belonged to my earliest recollections. 



NEW ORLEANS AFTER THE WAR. 43 

He was a colossal figure on a fiery steed, whose prancing 
forefeet never touched the earth. The Mexican War had 
hung a halo about him, and my childish explanation of the 
clouds of dust that the artist sought to represent was the 
smoke of battle, in which I supposed the hero lived perpetu- 
ally. And now this decrepit, tottering man -I was almost 
sorry to have seen him at all, except for the praise that he be- 
stowed upon my husband, which, coming from so old a sol- 
dier, I deeply appreciated. 

General Sheridan had assumed command of the Depart- 
ment of the Mississippi, and the Government had hired a 
beautiful mansion for headquarters, where he was at last liv- 
ing handsomely after all his rough campaigning. When we 
dined with him, we could but contrast the food prepared 
over a Virginia camp-fire, with the dainty French cookery 
of the old colored Mary, who served him afterward so many 
years. General Custer was, of course, glad to be under his 
chief again, and after dinner, while I was given over to some 
of the military family to entertain, the two men, sitting on 
the wide gallery, talked of what it was then believed would 
be a campaign across the border. I was left in complete ig- 
norance, and did not even know that an army of 70,000 men 
was being organized under General Sheridan's masterly hand. 
My husband read the Eastern papers to me, and took the 
liberty of reserving such articles as might prove incendiary in 
his family. If our incorrigible scamp spoke of the expected 
wealth he intended to acquire from the sacking of palaces 
and the spoils of churches, he was frowned upon, not only 
because the General tried to teach him that there were some 
subjects too sacred to be touched by his irreverent tongue, 
but because he did not wish my anxieties to be aroused by 
the prospect of another campaign. As much of my story 
must be of the hardships my husband endured, I have here 
lingered a little over the holiday that our journey and the de- 
tention in New Orleans gave him. I hardly think any one 
can recall a complaint of his in those fourteen years of tent- 
life; but he was taught, through deprivations, how to enjoy 



44 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

every moment of such days as that charming journey and 
city experience gave us. 

The steamer chartered to take troops up the Red River 
was finally ready, and we sailed the last week in June. There 
were horses and Government freight on board. The captain 
was well named Greathouse, as he greeted us with hospitality 
and put his little steamer at our disposal. Besides the fact 
that this contract for transportation would line his pockets 
well, he really seemed glad to have us. He was a Yankee, 
and gave us his native State (Indiana) in copious and inex- 
haustible supplies, as his contribution to the talks on deck. 
Long residence in the South had not dimmed his patriotism; 
and in the rapid transits from deck to pilot-house, of this tall 
Hoosier, I almost saw the straps fastening down the trousers 
of Brother Jonathan, as well as the coat-tails cut from the 
American flag, so entirely did he personate in his figure our 
emblematic Uncle Sam. It is customary for the Government 
to defray the expenses of officers and soldiers when traveling 
under orders; but so much red-tape is involved that they often 
pay their own way at the time, and the quartermaster reim- 
burses them at the journey's end. The captain knew this, 
and thought he would give himself the pleasure of having us 
as his guests. Accordingly, he took the General one side, 
and imparted this very pleasing information. Even with the 
provident ones this would be a relief; while we had come on 
board almost wrecked in our finances by the theatre, the 
tempting flowers, the fascinating restaurants, and finally, a 
disastrous lingering one day in the beguiling shop of Madam 
Olympe, the reigning milliner. The General had bought 
some folly for me, in spite of the heroic protest that I made 
about its inappropriateness for Texas, and it left us just 
enough to pay for our food on our journey, provided we or- 
dered nothing extra, and had no delays. Captain Great- 
house little knew to what paupers he was extending his hospi- 
tality. No one can comprehend how carelessly and enjoyably 
army people can walk about with empty pockets, knowing 
that it is but a matter of thirty days' waiting till Richard 



NEW ORLEANS AFTER THE WAR. 45 

shall be himself again. My husband made haste to impart 
the news quietly to the staff, that the captain was going to 
invite them all to be his guests, and so relieve their anxiety 
about financial embarrassment. The scamp saw a chance 
for a joke, and when the captain again appeared he knew 
that he was going to receive the invitation, and anticipated 
it. In our presence he jingled the last twenty-six cents he 
had in the world against the knife in his almost empty pock- 
ets, assumed a Crcesus-like air, and begged to know the cost 
of the journey, as he loftily said he made it a rule always to 
pay in advance. At this, the General, unable to smother his 
laughter, precipitated himself out of the cabin-door, nearly 
over the narrow guard, to avoid having his merriment seen. 
When the captain said blandly that he was about to invite 
our party to partake of his hospitality, our scamp bowed, and 
accepted the courtesy as if it were condescension on his part, 
and proceeded to take possession, and almost command, of 
the steamer. 

It was a curious trip, that journey up the Red River. We 
saw the dull brownish-red water from the clay bed and banks 
mingling with the clearer current of the Mississippi long be- 
fore we entered the mouth of the Red River. We had a de- 
lightful journey; but I don't know why, except that youth, 
health and buoyant spirits rise superior to everything. The 
river was ugliness itself. The tree trunks, far up, were gray 
.and slimy with the late freshet, the hanging moss adding a 
dismal feature to the scene. The waters still covered the 
low, muddy banks strewn with fallen trees and underbrush. 
The river was very narrow in places, and in our way there 
were precursors of the Red River raft above. At one time, 
before Government work was begun, the raft extended forty- 
five miles beyond Shreveport, and closed the channel to 
steamers. Sometimes the pilot wound us round just such 
obstructions — logs and driftwood jammed in so firmly, and 
so immovable, they looked like solid ground, while rank 
vegetation sprung up through the thick moss that covered 
the decaying tree trunks. The river was very crooked. The 



46 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

whistle screeched when approaching a turn; but so sudden 
were some of these, that a steamer coming down, not slack- 
ening speed, almost ran into us at one sharp bend. It shaved 
our sides and set our boat a-quivering, while the vitupera- 
tions of the boat's crew, and the loud, angry voices of the 
captain and pilot, with a prompt return of such civilities 
from the other steamer, made us aware that emergencies 
brought forth a special and extensive set of invectives, re- 
served for careless navigation on the Red River of the South. 
We grew to have an increasing respect for the skill of the 
pilot, as he steered us around sharp turns, across low water 
filled with branching upturned tree trunks, and skillfully took 
a narrow path between the shore and a snag that menacingly 
ran its black point out of the water. A steamer in advance 
of us, carrying troops, had encountered a snag, while going 
at great speed, and the obstructing tree ran entirely through 
the boat, coming out at the pilot-house. The troops were 
unloaded and taken up afterward by another steamer. Some- 
times the roots of great forest trees, swept down by a freshet, 
become imbedded in the river, and the whole length of the 
trunk is under water, swaying up and down, but not visible 
below the turbid surface. The forest is dense at some points, 
and we could see but a short distance as we made our cir- 
cuitous, dangerous way. 

The sand-bars, and the soft red clay of the river-banks, 
were a fitting home for the alligators that lay sunning them- 
selves, or sluggishly crawled into the stream as the General 
aimed at them with his rifle from the steamer's guards. 
They were new game, and gave some fresh excitement to the 
long, idle days. He never gave up trying, in his determined 
way, for the vulnerable spot in their hide just behind the eye. 
I thought the sand-hill crane must have first acquired its 
tiresome habit of standing on one leg, from its disgust at 
letting down the reserve foot into such thick, noisome water. 
It seemed a pity that some of those shots from the steamer's 
deck had not ended its melancholy existence. Through all 
this mournful river-way the guitar twanged, and the dense 



NEW ORLEANS AFTER THE WAR. 47 

forest resounded to war choruses or old college glees that 
we sent out in happy notes as we sat on deck. I believe 
Captain Greathouse bade us good-by with regret, as he 
seemed to enjoy the jolly party, and when we landed at 
Alexandria he gave us a hogshead of ice, the last we were to 
see for a year. 

A house abandoned by its owners, and used by General 
Banks for headquarters during the war, was selected for our 
temporary home. As we stepped upon the levee, a tall 
Southerner came toward me and extended his hand. At 
that time the citizens were not wont to welcome the Yankee 
in that manner. He had to tell me who he was, as unfor- 
tunately I had forgotten, and I began to realize the truth of 
the saying, that " there are but two hundred and fifty people 
in the world," when I found an acquaintance in this isolated 
town. He proved to be the only Southerner I had ever 
known in my native town in Michigan, who came there when 
a lad to visit kinsfolk. In those days his long black hair, 
large dark eyes and languishing manner, added to the smooth, 
soft-flowing, flattering speeches, made sad havoc in our 
school-girl ranks. I suppose the youthful and probably sus- 
ceptible hearts of our circle were all set fluttering, for the boy 
seemed to find pleasure in a chat with any one of us that fell 
to him in our walks to and from school. The captivating 
part of it all was the lines written on the pages of my arith- 
metic, otherwise so odious to me — " Come with me to my 
distant home, where, under soft Southern skies, we'll breathe 
the odor of orange groves." None of us had answered to 
his "Come," possibly because of the infantile state of our 
existence, possibly because the invitation was too general. 
And here stood our youthful hero, worn prematurely old and 
shabby after his four years of fighting for " the cause." The 
boasted " halls of his ancestors," the same to which we had 
been so ardently invited, were a plain white cottage. No 
orange groves, but a few lime-trees sparsely scattered over 
the prescribed lawn. In the pleasant visit that we all had, 
there was discreet avoidance of the poetic license he had 



48 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

taken in early years, when describing his home under the 
southern sky. 

Alexandria had been partly burned during the war, and 
was built up mostly with one-story cottages. Indeed, it was 
always the popular mode of building there. We found 
everything a hundred years behind the times. The houses of 
our mechanics at home had more conveniences and modern 
improvements. I suppose the retinue of servants before the 
war rendered the inhabitants indifferent to what we think 
absolutely necessary for comfort. The house we used as 
headquarters had large, lofty rooms separated by a wide hall, 
while in addition there were two wings. A family occupied 
one-half of the house, caring for it in the absence of the 
owners. In the six weeks we were there, we never saw them, 
and naturally concluded they were not filled with joy at our 
presence. The house was delightfully airy; but we took up 
the Southern custom of living on the gallery. The library 
was still intact, in spite of its having been headquarters for 
our army; and evidently the people had lived in what was 
considered luxury for the South in its former days, yet every- 
thing was primitive enough. This great house, filled as it 
once was with servants, had its sole water supply from two 
tanks or cisterns above ground at the rear. The rich and 
the poor were alike dependent upon these receptacles for 
water; and it was not a result of the war, for this was the 
only kind of reservoir provided, even in prosperous times. 
But one well was dug in Alexandria, as the water was brack- 
ish and impure. Each house, no matter how small, had cis- 
terns, sometimes as high as the smaller cottages themselves. 
The water in those where we lived was very low, the tops 
were uncovered, and dust, leaves, bugs and flies were blown 
in, while the cats strolled around the upper rim during their 
midnight orchestral overtures. We found it necessary to 
husband the fast lowering water, as the rains were over for the 
summer. The servants were enjoined to draw out the home- 
made plug (there was not even a Yankee faucet) with the ut- 
most care, while some one was to keep vigilant watch on a 



NEW ORLEANS AFTER THE WAR. 49 

cow, very advanced in cunning, that used to come and hook 
at the plug till it was loosened and fell out. The sound of 
flowing water was our first warning of the precious wasting. 
No one could drink the river-water, and even in our ablutions 
we turned our eyes away as we poured the water from the 
pitcher into the bowl. Our rain-water was so full of gallinip- 
pers and pollywogs, that a glass stood by the plate untouched 
until the sediment and natural history united at the bottom, 
while heaven knows what a microscope, had we possessed 
one, would have revealed! 

Eliza was well primed with stories of alligators by the 
negroes and soldiers, who loved to frighten her. One meas- 
uring thirteen feet eight inches was killed on the river-bank, 
they said, as he was about to partake of his favorite supper, 
a negro sleeping on the sand. It was enough for Eliza when 
she heard of this preference for those of her color, and she 
duly stampeded. She was not well up in the habits of ani- 
mals, and having seen the alligators crawling over the mud 
of the river banks, she believed they were so constituted that 
at night they could take long tramps over the country. She 
used to assure me that she nightly heard them crawling 
around the house. One night, when some fearful sounds 
issued from the cavernous depths of the old cistern, she ran 
to one of the old negroes of the place, her carefully braided 
wool rising from her head in consternation, and called out, 
" Jest listen! jest listen! " The old mammy quieted her by, 
" Oh la, honey, don't you be skeart; nothin's goin' to hurt 
you; them's only bull-toads." This information, though it 
quieted Eliza's fears, did not make the cistern-water any more 
enjoyable to us. 

The houses along Red River were raised from the ground on 
piles, as the soil was too soft and porous for cellars. Before 
the fences were destroyed and the place fell into dilapidation, 
there might have been a lattice around the base of the build- 
ing, but now it was gone. Though this open space under 
the house gave vent for what air was stirring, it also offered 
free circulation to pigs, that ran grunting and squealing back 



5<D TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

and forth, and even the calves sought its grateful shelter from 
the sun and flies. And, oh, the mosquitoes! Others have 
exhausted'adjectives in trying to describe them, and until I 
came to know those of the Missouri River at Fort Lincoln, 
Dakota, I joined in the general testimony, that the Red 
River of the South could not be outdone. The bayous about 
us, filled with decaying vegetable matter, and surrounded 
with marshy ground, and the frequent rapid fall of the river, 
leaving banks of mud, all bred mosquitoes, or gallinippers, as 
the darkies called them. Eliza took counsel as to the best 
mode of extermination, and brought old kettles with raw cot- 
ton into our room, from which proceeded such smudges and 
such odors as would soon have wilted a Northern mosquito; 
but it only resulted in making us feel like a piece of dried 
meat hanging in a smoke-house, while the undisturbed insect 
winged its way about our heads, singing as it swirled and 
dipped and plunged its javelin into our defenseless flesh. 
There were days there, as at Fort Lincoln, when the wind, 
blowing in a certain direction, brought such myriads of them 
that I was obliged to beat a retreat under the netting that 
enveloped the high, broad bed, which is a specialty of the 
extreme South, and with my book, writing or sewing, listened 
triumphantly to the clamoring army beating on the outside 
of the bars. The General made fun of me thus enthroned, 
when he returned from office work; but I used to reply that 
he could afford to remain unprotected, if the greedy creatures 
could draw their sustenance from his veins without leaving a 
sting. 

At the rear of our house were two rows of negro quarters, 
which Eliza soon penetrated, and afterward begged me to 
visit. Only the very old and worthless servants remained. 
The owners of the place on which we were living had three 
other sugar plantations in the valley, from one of which alone 
2,300 hogsheads of sugar were shipped in one season, and at 
the approach of the army 500 able-bodied negroes were sent 
into Texas. Eliza described the decamping of the owner of 
the plantation thus, "Oh, Miss Libbie, the war made a 



NEW ORLEANS AFTER THE WAR. 5 1 

mighty scatter." The poor creatures left were in desperate 
straits. One, a bed-ridden woman, having been a house- 
servant, was intelligent for one of her race. After Eliza had 
taken me the rounds, I piloted the General, and he found 
that, though the very old woman did not know her exact age, 
she could tell him of events that she remembered when she 
was in New Orleans with her mistress, which enabled him to 
calculate her years to be almost a hundred. Three old peo- 
ple claimed to remember " Washington's war." I look back 
to our visit to her little cabin, where we sat beside her bed, 
as one of vivid interest. The old woman knew little of the 
war, and no one had told her of the proclamation until our 
arrival. We were both much moved when, after asking us 
questions, she said to me, " And, Missey, is it really true that 
I is free?" Then she raised her eyes to heaven, and blessed 
the Lord for letting her live to see the day. The General, 
who had to expostulate with Eliza sometimes for her habit 
of feeding every one out of our supplies, whether needy or 
not, had no word to say now. Our kitchen could be full of 
grizzly, tottering old wrecks, and he only smiled on the gen- 
erous dispenser of her master's substance. Indeed, he had 
them fed all the time we stayed there, and they dragged their 
tattered caps from their old heads, and blessed him as we 
left, for what he had done, and for the food that he provided 
for them after we were gone. 

It was at Alexandria that I first visited a negro prayer-meet- 
ing. As we sat on the gallery one evening, we heard the 
shouting and singing, and quietly crept round to the cabin 
where the exhorting and groaning were going on. My hus- 
band stood with uncovered head, reverencing their sincerity, 
and not a muscle of his face moved, though it was rather 
difficult to keep back a smile at the grotesqueness of the 
scene. The language and the absorbed manner in which 
these old slaves held communion with their Lord, as if He 
were there in person, and told Him in simple but powerful 
language their thanks that the day of Jubilee had come, that 
their lives had been spared to see freedom come to His peo- 



52 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

pie, made us sure that a faith that brought their Saviour 
down in their midst was superior to that of the more civilized, 
who send petitions to a throne that they themselves surround 
with clouds of doctrine and doubt. Though they were so 
poor and helpless, and seemingly without anything to inspire 
gratitude, evidently there were reasons in their own minds 
for heartfelt thanks, as there was no mistaking the genuine- 
ness of feeling when they sang: 

" Bless the Lord that I can rise and tell 
That Jesus has done all things well." 

Old as some of these people were, their religion took a 
very energetic form. They swayed back and forth as they 
sat about the dimly lighted cabin, clapped their hands spas- 
modically, and raised their eyes to heaven in moments of 
absorption. There were those among the younger people 
who jumped up and down as the " power" possessed them, 
and the very feeblest uttered groans, and quavered out the 
chorus of the old tunes, in place of the more active demon- 
strations for which their rheumatic old limbs now unfitted 
them. When, afterward, my husband read to me newspaper 
accounts of negro camp-meetings or prayer-meetings graph- 
ically written, no description seemed exaggerated to us ; and 
he used to say that nothing compared with that night when 
we first listened to those serious, earnest old centenarians, 
whose feeble voices still quavered out a tune of gratitude, as, 
with bent forms and bowed heads, they stood leaning on 
their canes and crutches. 

As the heat became more overpowering, I began to make 
excuses for the slip-shod manner of living of the Red River 
people. Active as was my temperament, climatic influences 
told, and I felt that I should have merited the denunciation 
of the antique woman in " Uncle Tom's Cabin," of " Heow 
shiftless ! " It was hard to move about in the heat of the 
day, but at evening we all went for a ride. It seemed to me 
a land of enchantment. We had never known such luxuri- 
ance of vegetation. The valley of the river extended several 



NEW ORLEANS AFTER THE WAR. 53 

miles inland, the foliage was varied and abundant, and the 
sunsets had deeper, richer colors than any at the North. 
The General, getting such constant pleasure out of nature, 
and not in the least minding to express it, was glad to hear 
even the prosaic one of our number, who rarely cared for 
color or scenery, go into raptures over the gorgeous orange 
and red of that Southern sky. We sometimes rode for miles 
along the country roads, between hedges of osage-orange on 
one side, and a double white rose on the other, growing fif- 
teen feet high. The dew enhanced the fragrance, and a 
lavish profusion was displayed by nature in that valley, which 
was a constant delight to us. Sometimes my husband and I 
remained out very late, loth to come back to the prosy, un- 
interesting town, with its streets flecked with bits of cotton, 
evidences of the traffic of the world, as the levee was now 
piled up with bales ready for shipment. Once the staff crossed 
with us to the other side of the river, and rode out through 
more beautiful country roads, to what was still called Sherman 
Institute. General Sherman had been at the head of this 
military school before the war, but it was subsequently con- 
verted into a hospital. It was in a lonely and deserted dis- 
trict, and the great empty stone building, with its turreted 
corners and modern architecture, seemed utterly incongru- 
ous in the wild pine forest that surrounded it. We returned 
to the river, and visited two forts on the bank opposite Alex- 
andria. They were built by a Confederate officer who used 
his Federal prisoners for workmen. The General took in at 
once the admirable situation selected, which commanded the 
river for many miles. He thoroughly appreciated, and en- 
deavored carefully to explain to me, how cleverly the few 
materials at the disposal of the impoverished South had been 
utilized. The moat about the forts was the deepest our 
officers had ever seen. Closely as my husband studied the 
plan and formation, he said it would have added greatly to 
his appreciation, had he then known, what he afterward 
learned, that the Confederate engineer who planned this ad- 
mirable fortification was one of his classmates at West Point, 



54 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

of whom he was very fond. In 1864 an immense expedition 
of our forces was sent up the Red River, to capture Shreve- 
port and open up the great cotton districts of Texas. It was 
unsuccessful, and the retreat was rendered impossible by low 
water, while much damage was done to our fleet by the very 
Confederate forts we were now visiting. A dam was con- 
structed near Alexandria, and the squadron was saved from 
capture or annihilation by this timely conception of a quick- 
witted Western man, Colonel Joseph Bailey. The dam was 
visible from the walls of the forts, where we climbed for a 
view. 

As we resumed our ride to the steamer, the General, who 
was usually an admirable pathfinder, proposed a new and 
shorter road ; and liking variety too much to wish to travel 
the same country twice over, all gladly assented. Everything 
went very well for a time. We were absorbed in talking, 
noting new scenes on the route, or, as was our custom when 
riding off from the public highway, we sang some chorus ; 
and thus laughing, singing, joking, we galloped over the 
ground thoughtlessly into the very midst of serious danger. 
Apparently, nothing before us impeded our way. We knew 
very little of the nature of the soil in that country, but had 
become somewhat accustomed to the bayous that either 
start from the river or appear suddenly inland, quite discon- 
nected from any stream. On that day we dashed heedlessly 
to the bank of a wide bayou that poured its waters into the 
Red River. Instead of thinking twice, and taking the pre- 
caution to follow its course farther up into the country, where 
the mud was dryer and the space to cross much narrower, 
we determined not to delay, and prepared to go over. The 
most venturesome dashed first on to this bit of dried slough, 
and though the crust swayed and sunk under the horses' fly- 
ing feet, it still seemed caked hard enough to bear every 
weight. There were seams and fissures in portions of the 
bayou, through which the moist mud oozed ; but these were 
not sufficient warning to impetuous people. Another and 
another sprang over the undulating soil. Having reached 



NEW ORLEANS AFTER THE WAR. 55 

the other side, they rode up and down the opposite bank, 
shouting to us where they thought it the safest to cross, and 
of course interlarded their directions with good-natured 
scoffing about hesitation, timidity, and so on. The General, 
never second in anything when he could help it, remained 
behind to fortify my sinking heart and urge me to under- 
take the crossing with him. He reminded me how carefully 
Custis Lee had learned to follow and to trust to him, and he 
would doubtless plant his hoofs in the very tracks of his own 
horse. Another of our party tried to bolster up my courage, 
assuring me that if the heavy one among us was safely on 
the other bank, my light weight might be trusted. I dreaded 
making the party wait until we had gone further up the 
bayou, and might have mustered up the required pluck had 
I not met with trepidation on the part of my horse. His fine, 
delicate ears told me, as plainly as if he could speak, that I 
was asking a great deal of him. We had encountered quick- 
sands together in the bed of a Virginia stream, and both 
horse and rider were recalling the fearful sensation when the 
animal's hindlegs sank, leaving his body engulfed in the soil. 
With powerful struggles with his forefeet and muscular 
shoulders, we plunged to the right and left, and found at last 
firm soil on which to escape. With such a recollection still 
fresh, as memory is sure to retain terrors like that, it was 
hardly a wonder that we shrank from the next step. His 
trembling flanks shook as much as the unsteady hand that 
held his bridle. He quivered from head to foot, and held 
back. I urged , and patted his neck, while we both continued to 
shiver on the brink. The General laughed at the two cow- 
ards we really were, but still gave us time to get our courage 
up to the mark. The officer remaining with us continued to 
encourage me with assurances that there was " not an atom 
of danger," and finally, with a bound, shouting out, " Look 
how well I shall go over ! " sprang upon the vibrating crust. 
In an instant, with a crack like a pistol, the thin layer of 
solid mud broke, and down went the gay, handsomely ca- 
parisoned fellow, engulfed to his waist in the foul black crust. 



56 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

There was at once a commotion. With no ropes, it was hard 
to effect his release. His horse helped him most, struggling 
frantically for the bank, while the officers, having flung them- 
selves off from their animals to rush to his rescue, brought 
poles and tree branches, which the imbedded man was not 
slow to grasp and drag himself from the perilous spot when 
only superhuman strength could deliver him, as the mud of 
a bayou sucks under its surface with great rapidity anything 
with which it comes in contact. As soon as the officer was 
dragged safely on to firm earth, a shout went up that rent 
the air with its merriment. Scarcely any one spoke while 
they labored to save the man's life, but once he was out of 
peril, the rescuers felt their hour had come. They called 
out to him, in tones of derision, the vaunting air with which 
he said just before his engulf ment, " Look at me ; see how I 
go over ! " He was indeed a sorry sight, plastered from head 
to foot with black mud. Frightened as I was — for the 
trembling had advanced to shivering, and my chattering teeth 
and breathless voice were past my control — I still felt that 
little internal tremor of laughter that somehow pervades one 
who has a sense of the ludicrous in very dangerous surround- 
ings. 

I had certainly made a very narrow escape, for it would 
have been doubly hard to extricate me. The riding habits 
in those days were very long, and loaded so with lead to 
keep them down in high winds — and, I may add, in furious 
riding — that it was about all I could do to lift my skirt when 
I put it on. 

I held my horse with a snaffle, to get good, smooth going 
out of him, and my wrists became pretty strong; but in that 
slough I would have found them of little avail, I fear. There 
remained no opposition to seeking a narrower part of the 
bayou, above where I had made such an escape, and there 
was still another good result of this severe lesson after that: 
when we came to such ominous-looking soil, Custis Lee and 
his mistress were allowed all the shivering on the brink that 
their cowardice produced, while the party scattered to in- 



NEW ORLEANS AFTER THE WAR. 57 

vestigate the sort of foundation we were likely to find, before 
we attempted to plunge over a Louisiana quagmire. 

The bayous were a strange feature of that country. Often 
without inlet or outlet, a strip of water appeared, black and 
sluggish, filled with logs, snags, masses of underbrush and 
leaves. The banks, covered with weeds, noisome plants and 
rank tangled vegetation, seemed the dankest, darkest, most 
weird and mournful spots imaginable, a fit home for ghouls 
and bogies. There could be no more appropriate place for a 
sensational novelist to locate a murder. After a time I be- 
came accustomed to these frequently occurring water-ways, 
but it took me a good while to enjoy going fishing on them. 
The men were glad to vary their days by dropping a line in 
that vile water, and I could not escape their urging to go, 
though I was excused from fishing. 

On one oceasion we went down the river on a steamer, the 
sailors dragging the small boats over the strip of land be- 
tween the river and the bayou, and all went fishing or hunt- 
ing. This excursion was one that I am likely to remember 
forever. The officers, intent on their fishing, were rowed 
slowly through the thick water, while I was wondering to 
myself if there could be, anywhere, such a wild jungle of vines 
and moss as hung from the trees and entangled itself in the 
mass of weeds and water-plants below. We followed little 
indentations of the stream, and the boat was rowed into 
small bays and near dark pools, where the fish are known to 
stay, and finally we floated. The very limbs of the trees and 
the gnarled trunks took on human shape, while the droop- 
ing moss swayed as if it might be the drapery of a lamia, 
evolved out of the noisome vapors and floating above us. 
These fears and imaginings, which would have been put to 
flight by the assurances of the General, had he not been so 
intent on his line, proved to be not wholly spectres of the 
imagination. A mass of logs in front of us seemed to move. 
They did move, and the alligator, that looked so like a tree- 
trunk, established his identity by separating himself from the 
floating timber and making off. It was my scream, for the 



58 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

officers themselves did not enjoy the proximity of the beast, 
that caused the instant use of the oars and a quick retreat. 

I went fishing after that, of course; I couldn't get out of 
it; indeed I was supported through my tremors by a pleasure 
to which a woman cannot be indifferent — that of being want- 
ed on all sorts of excursions. But logs in the water never 
looked like logs after that; to my distended vision they ap- 
peared to writhe with the slow contortions of loathsome ani- 
mals. 

A soldier captured a baby-alligator one day, and the Gen- 
eral, thinking to quiet my terror of them by letting me see 
the reptile "close to," as the children say, took me down to 
camp, where the delighted soldier told me how he had 
caught it, holding on to the tail, which is its weapon. The 
animal was all head and tail; there seemed to be no inter- 
mediate anatomy. He flung the latter member at a hat in so 
vicious and violent a way, that I believed instantly the story, 
which I had first received with doubt, of his rapping over a 
puppy and swallowing him before rescue could come. This 
pet was in a long tank of water the owner had built, and it 
gave the soldiers much amusement. 

The General was greatly interested in alligator-hunting. 
It was said that the scales were as thick as a china plate, ex- 
cept on the head, and he began to believe so when he found 
his balls glancing off the impenetrable hide as if from the 
side of an ironclad. I suppose it was very exciting, after 
the officers had yelped and barked like a dog, to see the 
great monster decoyed from some dark retreat by the sound 
of his favorite tidbit. The wary game came slowly down the 
bayou, under fire of the kneeling huntsmen concealed in the 
underbrush, and was soon despatched. For myself, I should 
have preferred, had I been consulted, a post of observation 
in the top of some tree, instead of the boat in which I was 
being rowed. 



CHAPTER III. 

A MILITARY EXECUTION. 

There was a great deal to do in those weeks of our de- 
tention at Alexandria, during the working hours of the day, 
in organizing the division of cavalry for the march. Troops 
that had been serving in the West during the war were brought 
together at that point from all directions, and an effort was 
made to form them into a disciplined body. This herculean 
task gave my husband great perplexity. He wrote to my 
father that he did not entirely blame the men for the restless- 
ness and insubordination they exhibited, as their comrades, 
who had enlisted only for the war, had gone home, and, of 
course, wrote back letters to their friends of the pleasures of 
reunion with their families and kindred, and the welcome 
given them by their townspeople. The troops with us had 
not served out the time of their enlistment, and the Govern- 
ment, according to the strict letter of the law, had a right to 
the unexpired time for which the men were pledged. Some 
of the regiments had not known the smell of gunpowder dur- 
ing the entire war, having been stationed in and near South- 
ern cities, and that duty is generally demoralizing. In the 
reorganizing of this material, every order issued was met with 
growls and grumbling. It seemed that it had been the cus- 
tom with some of their officers to issue an order, and then go 
out and make a speech, explaining the whys and wherefores. 
One of the colonels came to the General one day at his own 
quarters, thinking it a better place than the office to make 
his request. He was a spectacle, and though General Custer 
was never in after years incautious enough to mention his 
name, he could not. with his keen sense of the ludicrous, re- 

59 



60 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

sist a laughing description of the interview. The man was 
large and bulky in build. Over the breast of a long, loose, 
untidy linen duster he had spread the crimson sash, as he 
was officer of the day. A military sword-belt gathered in the 
voluminous folds of the coat, and from his side hung a parade 
sword. A slouch hat was crowded down on a shock of bushy 
hair. One trouser-leg was tucked into his boot, as if to 
represent one foot in the cavalry; the other, true to the in- 
fantry, was down in its proper place. He began his inter- 
view by praising his regiment, gave an account of the success 
with which he was drilling his men, and, leaning confiden- 
tially on the General's knee, told him he " would make them 

so near like regglers you couldn't tell 'em apart." Two 

officers of the regular army were then in command of the two 
brigades, to one of which this man's regiment was assigned. 
But the object of the visit was not solely to praise his regi- 
ment; he went on to say that an order had been issued which 
the men did not like, and he had come up to expostulate. 
He did not ask to have the order rescinded, but told the Gen- 
eral he would like to have him come down and give the rea- 
sons to the troops. He added that this was what they expect- 
ed, and when he issued any command he went out and got 
upon a barrel and explained it to the boys. My husband lis- 
tened patiently, but declined, as that manner of issuing orders 
was hardly in accordance with his ideas of discipline. 

The soldiers did not confine their maledictions to the regu- 
lar officers in command; they openly refused to obey their 
own officers. One of the colonels (I am glad I have forgot- 
ten his name) made a social call at our house. He was in 
great perturbation of mind, and evidently terrified, as in the 
preceding night his dissatisfied soldiers had riddled his tent 
with bullets, and but for his "lying low " he would have 
been perforated like a sieve. The men supposed they had 
ended his military career; but at daylight he crept out. The 
soldiers were punished; but there seemed to be little to ex- 
pect in the way of obedience if, after four years, they ignored 
their superiors and took affairs into their own hands. 



A MILITARY EXECUTION. 6l 

Threats began to make their way to our house. The staff 
had their tents on the lawn in front of us, and even they 
tried to persuade the General to lock the doors and bolt the 
windows, which were left wide open day and night. Failing 
to gain his consent to take any precautions, they asked me 
to use my influence; but in such affairs I had little success in 
persuasion. The servants, and even the orderlies, came to 
me and solemnly warned me of the threats and the danger 
that menaced the General. Thoroughly frightened in his 
behalf, they prefaced their warnings with the old-fashioned 
sensational language: "This night, at 12 o'clock," etc. 
The fixing of the hour for the arrival of the assassin com- 
pletely unnerved me, as I had not then escaped from the in- 
fluence that the melodramatic has upon youth. I ran to the 
General the moment he came from his office duties, to tell 
him, with tears and agitation, of his peril. As usual, he 
soothed my fears, but, on this occasion, only temporarily. 
Still, seeing what I suffered from anxiety, he made one con- 
cession, and consented, after much imploring, to put a pistol 
under his pillow. A complete battery of artillery round our 
house could not have secured to me more peace of mind than 
that pistol; for I knew the accuracy of his aim, and I had 
known too much of his cool, resolute action, in moments of 
peril, not to be sure that the small weapon would do its 
work. Peace was restored to the head of our house; he had 
a respite from the whimpering and begging. I even grew so 
courageous as to be able to repeat to Eliza, when she came 
next morning to put the room in order, what the General 
had said to me, that " barking dogs do not bite." The mat- 
tress was proudly lifted, and the pistol, of which I stood in 
awe, in spite of my faith in its efficacy, was exhibited to her 
in triumph. I made wide detours around that side of the 
bed the rest of the time we remained at Alexandria, afraid of 
the very weapon to which I was indebted for tranquil hours. 
The cats, pigs and calves might charge at will under the 
house. If I mistook them for the approaching adversary I 
remembered the revolver and was calmed. 



62 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Long afterward, during our winter in Texas, my husband 
began one day to appear mysterious, and assume the sup- 
pressed air that invariably prefaced a season of tormenting, 
when a siege of questions only brought out deeper and ob- 
scurer answers to me. Pouting, tossing of the head, and 
reiterated announcements that I didn't care a rap, I didn't 
want to know, etc., were met by chuckles of triumph and 
wild juba patting and dancing around the victim, unrestrained 
by my saying that such was the custom of the savage while 
torturing his prisoner. Still, he persisted that he had such a 
good joke on me. And it certainly was: there had not been 
a round of ammunition in the house that we occupied at 
Alexandria, neither had that old pistol been loaded during 
the entire summer ! 

The soldiers became bolder in their rebellion; insubordi- 
nation reached a point where it was almost uncontrollable. 
Reports were sent to General Sheridan, in command of the 
Department, and he replied to my husband, "Use such sum- 
mary measures as you deem proper to overcome the mutinous 
disposition of the individuals in your command." A Western 
officer, a stranger to us up to that time, published an ac- 
count of one of the regiments, which explains what was not 
clear to us then, as we had come directly from the Army of 
the Potomac: 

"One regiment had suffered somewhat from indifferent 
field officers, but more from the bad fortune that overtook so 
many Western regiments in the shape of garrison duty in 
small squads or squadrons, so scattered as to make each a 
sort of independent command, which in the end resulted in 
a loss of discipline, and the ruin of those bonds of sympathy 
that bound most regiments together. To lead such a regi- 
ment into a hotly contested fight would be a blessing, and 
would effectually set at rest all such trouble; but their fight- 
ing had been altogether of the guerrilla kind, and there was 
no regimental pride of character, simply because there had 
been no regimental deed of valor. Tired out with the long 
service, weary with an uncomfortable journey by river from 



A MILITARY EXECUTION. 63 

Memphis, sweltering under a Gulf-coast sun, under orders to 
go farther and farther from home when the war was over, the 
one desire was to be mustered out and released from a service 
that became irksome and baleful when a prospect of crushing 
the enemy no longer existed. All these, added to the dis- 
satisfaction among the officers, rendered the situation truly- 
deplorable. The command had hardly pitched their tents 
at Alexandria before the spirit of reckless disregard of author- 
ity began to manifest itself. The men, singly or in squads, 
began to go on extemporaneous raids through the adjoining 
country, robbing and plundering indiscriminately in every 
direction. They seemed to have no idea that a conquered 
and subdued people could possibly have any rights that the 
conquerors were bound to respect. But General Custer was 
under orders to treat the people kindly and considerately, 
and he obeyed orders with the same punctiliousness with 
which he exacted obedience from his command." The anger 
and hatred of these troops toward one especial officer culmi- 
nated in their peremptory demand that he should resign. 
They drew up a paper, and signed their names. He had not 
a friend, and sought the commanding officer for protection. 
This was too pronounced a case of mutiny to be treated with 
any but the promptest, severest measures, and all who had 
put their names to the document were placed under arrest. 
The paper was in reality but a small part of the incessant per- 
secution, which included threats of all kinds against the life 
of the hated man; but it was written proof that his state- 
ments regarding his danger were true. 

All but one of those that were implicated apologized, and 
were restored to duty. A sergeant held out, and refused to 
acknowledge himself in the wrong. A court-martial tried 
him and he was sentenced to death. Those who had been 
associated in the rebellion against their officer were thor- 
oughly frightened, and seriously grieved at the fate to which 
their comrade had been consigned by their uncontrollable 
rage, and began to speak among themselves of the wife and 
children at home. The wife was unconscious that the heart- 



64 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

breaking revelations were on their way; that the saddest of 
woman's sorrows, widowhood, was hers to endure, and 
that her children must bear a tainted name. It came to be 
whispered about that the doomed man wore on his heart a 
curl of baby's hair, that had been cut from his child's head 
when he went out to serve his imperiled country. Finally, 
the wretched, conscience-stricken soldiers sued for pardon 
for their condemned companion, and the very man against 
whom the enmity had been cherished, and who owed his life 
to an accident, busied himself in collecting the name of every 
man in the command, begging clemency for the imperiled 
sergeant. Six days passed, and there was increased misery 
among the men, who felt themselves responsible for their 
comrade's life. The prayer for pardon, with its long roll of 
names, had been met by the General with the reply that the 
matter would be considered. 

The men now prepared for vengeance. They lay around 
the camp-fires, or grouped themselves in tents, saying that 
the commanding officer would not dare to execute the sen- 
tence of the court-martial, while messages of this kind reached 
my husband in cowardly, roundabout ways, and threats and 
menaces seemed to fill the air. The preparation for the ser- 
geant's execution was ordered, and directions given that a 
deserter, tried by court-martial and condemned, should be 
shot on the same day. This man, a vagabond and criminal 
before his enlistment, had deserted three or four times, and 
his sentence drew little pity from his comrades. At last 
dawned in the lovely valley that dreadful day, which I recall 
now with a shudder. It was impossible to keep me from 
knowing that an execution was to occur. There was no place 
to send me. The subterfuges by which my husband had 
kept me from knowing the tragic or the sorrowful in our mil-' 
itary life heretofore, were of no avail now. Fortunately, I 
knew nothing of the petition for pardon ; nothing, thank 
God ! of the wife at her home, or of the curl of baby's hair 
that was rising and falling over the throbbing, agonized 
heart of the condemned father. And how the capacity we 



A MILITARY EXECUTION. 65 

may have for embracing the sorrows of the whole world disap- 
pears when our selfish terrors concentrate on the safety of 
our own loved ones ! 

The sergeant's life was precious as a life; but the threats, 
the ominous and quiet watching, the malignant, revengeful 
faces of the troops about us, told me plainly that another day 
might darken my life forever, and I was consumed by my own 
torturing suspense. Rumors of the proposed murder of my 
husband reached me through the kitchen, the orderlies about 
our quarters, and at last through the staff. They had fallen 
into the fashion of my husband, and spared me anything that 
was agitating or alarming; but this was a time, they felt, 
when all possible measures should be taken to protect the 
General, and they implored me to induce him to take pre- 
cautions for his safety. My pleading was of no avail. He 
had ordered the staff to follow him unarmed to the execu- 
tion. They begged him to wear his side-arms, or at least per- 
mit them the privilege, in order that they might defend him; 
but he resolutely refused. How trivial seem all attempts to 
describe the agonies of mind that filled that black hour when 
the General and his staff rode from our lawn toward the 
dreaded field ! 

Eliza, ever thoughtful of me, hovered round the bed, where 
I had buried my head in the pillows to deaden the sound of 
the expected volley. With terms of endearment and sooth- 
ing, she sought to assure me that nothing would happen to the 
General. " Nothin' ever does, you know, Miss Libbie," she 
said, her voice full of the mother in us all when we seek to 
console. And yet that woman knew all the plans for the 
General's death, all the venom in the hearts of those who 
surrounded us, and she felt no hope for his safety. 

Pomp and circumstance are not alone for "glorious war," 
but in army life must also be observed in times of peace. 
There are good reasons for it, I suppose. The more form 
and solemnity, the deeper the impression; and as this day 
was to be a crucial one, in proving to the insubordinate that 
order must eventually prevail, nothing was hurried, none of 



66 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

the usual customs were omitted. Five thousand soldiers 
formed a hollow square in a field near the town. The staff, 
accustomed to take a position and remain with their General 
near the opening left by the division, followed with wonder 
and alarm as he rode slowly around the entire line, so near 
the troops that a hand might have been stretched out to deal 
a fatal blow. The wagon, drawn by four horses, bearing the 
criminals sitting on their coffins, followed at a slow pace, es- 
corted by the guard and the firing-party, with reversed arms. 
The coffins were placed in the centre of the square, and the 
men seated upon them at the foot of their open graves. 
Eight men, with livid countenances and vehemently beating 
hearts, took their places in front of their comrades, and 
looked upon the blanched, despairing faces of those whom 
they were ordered to kill. The provost-marshal carried their 
carbines off to a distance, loaded seven, and placed a blank 
cartridge in the eighth, thus giving the merciful boon of per- 
manent uncertainty as to whose was the fatal shot. The 
eyes of the poor victims were then bandaged, while thousands 
of men held their breath as the tragedy went on. The still, 
Southern air of that garden on earth was unmoved by any 
sound, save the unceasing notes of the mocking-birds that 
sang night and day in the hedges. Preparations had been 
so accurately made that there was but one word to be spoken 
after the reading of the warrant for execution, and that the 
last that those most miserable and hopeless of God's crea- 
tures should hear on earth. 

There was still one more duty for the provost-marshal 
before the fatal word, " Fire ! " was sounded. But one per- 
son understood his movements as he stealthily drew near the 
sergeant, took his arm, and led him aside. In an instant his 
voice rang out the fatal word, and the deserter fell back dead, 
in blessed ignorance that he went into eternity alone; while 
the sergeant swooned in the arms .of the provost-marshal. 
When he was revived, it was explained to him that the Gen- 
eral believed him to have been the victim of undue influence, 
and had long since determined upon the pardon; but some 



A MILITARY EXECUTION. 67 

punishment he thought necessary, and he was also deter- 
mined that the soldiers should not feel that he had been in- 
timidated from performing his duty because his own life was 
in peril. It was ascertained afterward that the sergeant's reg- 
iment had gone out that day with loaded carbines and forty 
rounds besides; but the knowledge of this would have alter- 
ed no plan, nor would it have induced the commanding 
officer to reveal to any but his provost-marshal the final de- 
cision. 

Let us hope that in these blessed days of peace some other 
tiny curls are nestling in a grandfather's neck, instead of ly- 
ing over his heart, as did the son's in those days, when mem- 
ories and mementos were all we had of those we loved. 

General Custer not only had his own Division to organize 
and discipline, but was constantly occupied in trying to estab- 
lish some sort of harmony between the Confederate soldiers, 
the citizens, and his command. The blood of eveiyone was 
at boiling-point then. The soldiers had not the grief of re- 
turning to homes desolated by war, because Louisiana escaped 
much and Texas all of the devastation of campaigns; but 
they came home obliged to begin the world again. The ne- 
groes of the Red River country were not an easy class to man- 
age in days of slavery. We heard that all desperate charac- 
ters in the border States had been sold into Louisiana, 
because of its comparative isolation, and that the most un- 
governable cases were congregated in the valley of the Red 
River. However that may have been, it certainly was diffi- 
cult to make them conform to the new state of affairs. The 
master, unaccustomed to freedom, still treated the negro as 
a slave. The colored man, inflated with freedom and revel- 
ing in idleness, would not accept common directions in labor. 
How even the South tolerates a name that it once hated, in 
the prosperity of the new regime, and in the prospect of 
their splendid future ! How fresh the enthusiasm in the 
present day, at any mention of the liberator of the slaves ! 

But when we consider through what bungling errors we 
groped blindly in those early days of emancipation, we might 



68 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

well wish that Abraham Lincoln could have been spared to 
bring his justice and gentle humanity to bear upon the ad- 
justing of that great transition from slavery to freedom. 

At the least intimation of a " show " or a funeral — which 
is a festivity to them, on account of the crowds that congre- 
gate — off went the entire body of men, even if the crops were 
in danger of spoiling for want of harvesting. It was a time 
in our history that one does not like to look back upon. 
The excitement into which the land was thrown, not only by 
war, but by the puzzling question of how to reconcile master 
to servant and servant to master — for the colored people were 
an element most difficult to manage, owing to their ignor- 
ance and the sudden change of relations to their former own- 
ers — all this created new and perplexing problems, which were 
the order of each day. 

The Confederate soldiers had to get their blood down from 
fever heat. Some took advantage of the fact that the war 
was over and the Government was ordering its soldiers into 
the State, not as invaders but as pacifiers, to drag their sa- 
bres through the street and talk loudly on the corners in bel- 
ligerent language, without fear of the imprisonment that in 
war-times had so quickly followed. 

The General was obliged to issue simultaneous orders to 
his own men, demanding their observance of every right of 
the citizen, and to the returned Confederate soldiers, assur- 
ing them that the Government had not sent troops into their 
country as belligerents, but insisting upon certain obliga- 
tions, as citizens, from them. 

In an order to the Division, he said: "Numerous com- 
plaints having reached these headquarters, of depredations 
having been committed by persons belonging to this com- 
mand, all officers and soldiers are hereby urged to use every 
exertion to prevent the committal of acts of lawlessness, 
which, if permitted to pass unpunished, will bring discredit 
upon the command. Now that the war is virtually ended, 
the rebellion put down, and peace about to be restored to 
our entire country, let not the lustre of the past four years 



A MILITARY EXECUTION. 69 

be dimmed by a single act of misconduct toward the persons 
or property of those with whom we may be brought in con- 
tact. In the future, and particularly on the march, the ut- 
most care will be exercised to save the inhabitants of the 
country in which we may be located from any molestation 
whatever. Every violation of order regarding foraging will 
be punished. The Commanding-General is well aware that 
the number of those upon whom the enforcement of this or- 
der will be necessary will be small, and he trusts that in no 
case will it be necessary. All officers and soldiers of this 
command are earnestly reminded to treat the inhabitants of 
this Department with conciliation and kindness, and particu- 
larly is this injunction necessary when we are brought in 
contact with those who lately were in arms against us. You 
can well afford to be generous and magnanimous." 

In another order, addressed to the Confederate soldiers, he 
said: " It is expected, and it will be required, that those who 
were once our enemies, but are now to be treated as friends, 
will in return refrain from idle boasts, which can only result 
in harm to themselves. If there still be any who, blind to 
the events of the past four years, continue to indulge in se- 
ditious harangues, all such disturbers of the peace will be ar- 
rested, and brought to these headquarters." 

Between the troublesome negroes, the unsubdued Confed- 
erates, and the lawless among our own soldiers, life was by 
no means an easy problem to solve. A boy of twenty-five 
was then expected to act the subtle part of statesman and 
patriot, and conciliate and soothe the citizen; the part of 
stern and unrelenting soldier, punishing evidences of unsup- 
pressed rebellion on the part of the conquered; and at the 
same time the vigilant commanding officer, exacting obedi- 
ence from his own disaffected soldiery. 

As for the positions he filled toward the negro, they were 
varied — counseling these duties to those who employed 
them, warning them from idleness, and urging them to work, 
feeding and clothing the impoverished and the old. It seems 
to me it was a position combining in one man doctor, lawyer, 



JO TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

taskmaster, father and provider. The town and camp 
swarmed with the colored people, lazily lying around waiting 
for the Government to take care of them, and it was neces- 
sary to issue a long order to the negroes, from which I make 
an extract: 

" Since the recent advent of the United States forces into 
this vicinity, many of the freedmen of the surrounding coun- 
try seem to have imbibed the idea that they will no longer be 
required to labor for their own support and the support of 
those depending upon them. Such ideas cannot be tolerated, 
being alike injurious to the interests and welfare of the freed- 
men and their employers. Freedmen must not look upon 
military posts as places of idle resort, from which they can 
draw their means of support. Their proper course is to ob- 
tain employment, if possible, upon the same plantations 
where they were previously employed. General Order No. 
23, Headquarters Department of the Gulf, March 11, 1865, 
prescribes the rules of contract in the case of these persons. 
The coming crops, already maturing, require cultivation, and 
will furnish employment for all who are disposed to be indus- 
trious. Hereafter, no freedmen will be permitted to remain 
in the vicinity of the camps who are not engaged in some 
proper employment." 

Standing alone in the midst of all this confusion, and en- 
deavoring to administer justice on all sides, General Custer 
had by no means an enviable task. I do not wonder now 
that he kept his perplexities as much as possible from me. 
He wished to spare me anxiety, and the romp or the gallop 
over the fragrant field, which he asked for as soon as office- 
hours were over, was probably more enjoyable with a woman 
with uncorrugated brow. Still, I see now the puzzled shake 
of the head as he said, " A man may do everything to keep 
a woman from knowledge of official matters, and then she 
gets so confounded keen in putting little trifles together, the 
first thing you know she is reading a man's very thoughts." 
Yet it does not strike me as remarkable keenness on the part 
of a woman if, after the experience she gains in following the 



A MILITARY EXECUTION. yi 

bugle a time, and with her wits sharpened by affection, she 
decides that a move is about to take place. The General 
used to turn quickly, almost suspiciously, to me and say, 
as if I had been told by the staff, " How did you find out we 
were ordered to move ? "—when he had been sending for the 
quartermaster and the commissary, and looking at his maps, 
for ever so long before ! It was not much of a mystery to 
solve when the quartermaster meant transportation, the com- 
missary food, and the maps a new route. 

After determined efforts to establish discipline, order began 
to be evolved out of the chaos, and the men resigned them- 
selves to their hard fate. Much as I feared them, and great- 
ly as I had resented their attempt to lay all their present 
detention and compulsory service to my husband, I could 
not but agree with him when he argued for them that it was 
pretty hard not to be allowed to go home, when the other 
soldiers had returned to receive the rewards of the victorious. 
They wrote home abusive newspaper articles, which were 
promptly mailed to the General by unknown hands, but of 
which he took no notice. I recollect only once, after that, 
knowing of an absolutely disagreeable encounter. During 
the following winter in Texas, my husband came quickly into 
our room one morning, took my riding-whip and returned 
across the hall to his office. In a short time he as quickly 
returned, and restored it to its place, and I extracted from 
him an explanation. Among the newspaper articles sent him 
from the North, there was an attack on his dear, quiet, un- 
offending father and mother. He sent for the officer who 
was credited with the authorship, and, after his denial of the 
article, told him what he had intended to do had he been 
guilty of such an assault; that he was prepared for any attack 
on himself, but nothing would make him submit to seeing 
his gray-haired parents assailed. Then he bade him good- 
morning, and bowed him out. 

The effect of the weeks of discipline on the Division was 
visible on our march into Texas. The General had believed 
that the men would eventually conform to the restrictions, 



72 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

and he was heartily relieved and glad to find that they did. 
The Texans were amazed at the absence of the lawlessness 
they had expected from our army, and thankful to find that 
the Yankee column was neither devastating nor even injur- 
ing their hitherto unmolested State, for the war on land had 
not reached Texas. The troops were not permitted to live 
on the country, as is the usage of war, and only one instance 
occurred, during the entire march, of a soldier's simply help- 
ing himself to a farmer's grain. Every pound of food and 
forage was bought by the quartermaster. It was hard to 
realize that the column marching in a methodical and order- 
ly manner was, so short a time before, a lawless and mutinous 
command. 

They hated us, I suppose. That is the penalty the com- 
manding officer generally pays for what still seems to me the 
questionable privilege of rank and power. Whatever they 
thought, it did not deter us from commending, among our- 
selves, the good material in those Western men, which so 
soon made them orderly and obedient soldiers. 

But I have anticipated somewhat, and must go back and 
say good-by to that rich, flower-scented valley. It had been 
a strange experience to me. I had no woman but Eliza to 
whom I could speak. The country and all its customs seemed 
like another world, into which I had unexpectedly entered. 
I had spent many hours of anxiety about my husband's safety. 
But the anxiety, heat, mosquitoes, poor water, alligators, 
mutiny, all combined, failed to extract a complaint. There 
was not an atom of heroism in this; it was undeniably the 
shrewd cunning of which women are accused, for I lived in 
hourly dread of being sent to Texas by the other route, via 
New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. The General had been 
advised by letters from home to send me that way, on the 
ground that I could not endure a march at that season. 
Officers took on a tone of superiority, and said that they 
would not think of taking their wives into such a wilderness. 
My fate hung in the balance, and under such circumstances 
it was not strange that the inconveniences of our stay on 



A MILITARY EXECUTION. 73 

Red River were not even so much as acknowledged. It is 
true that I was not then a veteran campaigner, and the very- 
newness of the hardships would, doubtless, have called forth 
a few sighs, had not the fear of another separation haunted 
me. It is astonishing how much grumbling is suppressed by 
the fear of something worse awaiting you. In the decision 
which direction I was to take, I won; my husband's scruples 
were overcome by my unanswerable arguments and his own 
inclination. 

I prepared to leave Alexandria with regret, for the pleas- 
ures of our stay had outnumbered the drawbacks. It was our 
first knowledge that the earth could be so lovely and so lavish- 
ly laden with what began to be tropical luxuriance. I do not 
recall the names of all the birds, but the throats of all of them 
seemed to be filled with song. In a semicircle on the lawn 
in front of our house, grew a thick hedge of crape myrtle, 
covered with fragrant blossoms. Here the mocking-birds 
fearlessly built their nests, and the stillest hour of the night 
was made melodious with the song that twilight had been too 
short to complete. Really, the summer day there was too 
brief to tell all that these birds had to say to their mates. 

To the General, who would have had an aviary had it been 
just the thing for a mounted regiment, all this song, day and 
night, was enchanting. In after years he never forgot those 
midnight serenades, and in 1873 he took a mocking-bird into 
the bleak climate of Dakota. Eliza mildly growled at " sich 
nonsense "as " toting round a bird, when 'twas all folks like 
us could do to get transportation for a cooking-kit." Never- 
theless, she took excellent care of the feathered tribe that we 
owned. 

Among the fruits we first ate in Louisiana were fresh figs, 
which we picked from the tree. It was something to write 
home about, but at the same time we wished that instead we 
might have a Northern apple. 

The time came to bid farewell to birds, fruits, jasmine and 
rose, and prepare for a plunge into the wilderness — much 
talked of with foreboding prophecies by the citizens, but a 



74 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

hundred times worse in reality than the gloomiest predic- 
tions. 

It was known that the country through which we were to 
travel, having been inaccessible to merchants, and being even 
then infested with guerrillas, had large accumulations of cot- 
ton stored at intervals along the route that was marked out 
for our journey. Speculators arrived from New Orleans, and 
solicited the privilege of following with wagons that they in- 
tended to load with cotton. They asked no favors, desiring 
only the protection that the cavalry column would afford, 
and expected to make their way in our wake until the sea- 
board was reached and they could ship their purchases by the 
Gulf of Mexico. But their request was refused, as the Gen- 
eral hardly thought it a fitting use to which to put the army. 
Then they assailed the quartermaster, offering twenty-five 
thousand dollars to the General and him, as a bribe. But 
both men laughed to scorn that manner of getting rich, and 
returned to their homes the year after as poor as when they 
had left there five years before. As I think of the instances 
that came under my knowledge, when quartermasters could 
have made fortunes, it is a marvel to me that they so often 
resisted all manner of temptation. The old tale, perhaps 
dating back to the War of 1812, still applies, as it is a con- 
stantly recurring experience. There was once a wag in the 
quartermaster's department, and even when weighted down 
with grave responsibility of a portion of the Government 
treasury, he still retained a glimmer of fun. Contractors lay 
in wait for him with bribes, which his spirit of humor allowed 
to increase, even though the offers were insults to his honor. 
Finally, reaching a very large sum, in sheer desperation he 
wrote to the War Department: "In the name of all the gods, 
relieve me from this Department; they've almost got up to 
my price." Civilians hardly realize that, even in times of 
peace like this, when the disbursements will not compare with 
the money spent in years of war, between eight and nine 
millions of dollars are yearly paid out by the quartermaster's 
department alone. Since the war the embezzlements have 



A MILITARY EXECUTION. 75 

been hardly worthy of so serious a name, amounting to but 
a few hundred dollars, all told. 

The General had an ambulance fitted up as a traveling- 
wagon for me; the seats so arranged that the leather backs 
could be unstrapped at the sides and laid down so as to form 
a bed, if I wished to rest during the march. There was a 
pocket for my needlework and book, and a box for luncheon, 
while my traveling-bag and shawl were strapped at the side, 
convenient, but out of the way. It was quite a complete 
little house of itself. One of the soldiers, who was interested 
in the preparations for my comfort, covered a canteen with 
leather, adding of his own accord, in fine stitchery in the 
yellow silk used by the saddlers, " Lady Custer." Each day 
of our journey this lofty distinction became more and more 
incongruous and amusing, as I realized the increasing ugli- 
ness, for which the rough life was, in a measure, responsible. 
By the time we reached the end of our march there was a 
yawning gulf between the soldier's title and the appearance 
of the owner of the canteen. The guide that had been em- 
ployed was well up in all the devices for securing what little 
measure of comfort was to be found in overland travel. I 
followed his suggestion, and after the canteen was filled in 
the morning, it was covered with a piece of wet blanket and 
hung, with the cork left out, to the roof of the wagon, in 
order to catch all the air that might be stirring. Under this 
damp treatment the yellow letters of " Lady Custer" faded 
out as effectually as did all semblance of whatever delicacy of 
coloring the owner once possessed. 

A short time after we set out, we left the valley of the Red 
River, with its fertile plantations, and entered a pine forest 
on the table-land, through which our route lay for a hundred 
and fifty miles. A great portion of the higher ground was 
sterile, and the forest much of the way was thinly inhabited. 
We had expected to hire a room in any farm-house at which 
we halted at the end of each day's journey, and have the 
privilege of sleeping in a bed. Camping on the ground was 
an old story to me after our long march in Virginia; but, 



j6 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

with the prospect of using the bosom of mother Earth as a 
resting-place for the coming thirty years, we were willing to 
improve any opportunity to be comfortable when we could. 
The cabins that we passed on the first day discouraged us. 
Small, low, log huts, consisting of one room each, entirely 
separated and having a floored open space between them, 
were the customary architecture. The windows and doors 
were filled with the vacant faces of the untidy children of the 
poor white trash and negroes. The men and women slouched 
and skulked around the cabins out of sight, and every sign 
of abject, loathsome poverty was visible, even in the gaunt 
and famished pigs that rooted around the doorway. I de- 
termined to camp out until we came to more inviting habita- 
tions, which, I regret to say, we did not find on that march. 
We had not brought the thin mattress and pillows that had 
been made for our traveling-wagon in Virginia; but the hard- 
est sort of resting-place was preferable to braving the squalor 
of the huts along our way. 

My husband rolled his overcoat for my pillow, telling me 
that a soldier slept like a top with such an one, and it was 
much better than a saddle, in the hollow of which he had 
often laid his flaxen top-knot. But a woman cannot make 
herself into a good soldier all in a minute. If one takes hold 
of the thick, unwieldy material that Uncle Sam puts into the 
army overcoat, some idea can be gained of the rocky roll it 
makes when doing duty as a resting-place; and anyone whose 
neck has made the steep incline from head to shoulder that 
this substitute for a pillow necessitates, is apt to waken less 
patriotic than when he retired. After repeated efforts to get 
accustomed to this, buoyed up by my husband's praise of my 
veteran-like behavior, I confided to Eliza that I should not 
be ungrateful for any device she might think out for my re- 
lief, if she would promise not to tell that I had spoken to 
her. The next day she gathered moss from the trees along 
the stream, and I felt that I could serve my country just as 
well by resting on this soft bed. I had begged off from using 
a tent in that country, as there seemed to be no insect that 



A MILITARY EXECUTION. 77 

was not poisonous, and even many of the vines and under- 
brush were dangerous to touch. My husband had the wagon 
placed in front of the tent every night when our march was 
ended, and lifted me in and out of the high sleeping-room, 
where I felt that nothing venomous could climb up and 
sting. The moss, though very comfortable, often held in its 
meshes the horned toad, a harmless little mottled creature 
that had two tiny horns, which it turned from side to side in 
the gravest, most knowing sort of way. The officers sent 
these little creatures home by mail as curiosities, and, true to 
their well-known indifference to air, they jumped out of the 
box at the journey's end in just the same active manner that 
they had hopped about under our feet. Still, harmless as 
they were held to be, they were not exactly my choice as 
bed-fellows, any more than the lizards the Texanscall swifts, 
which also haunted the tangles of the moss. Eliza tried to 
shake out and beat it thoroughly, in order to dislodge any 
inhabitants, before making my bed. One night I found that 
hay had been substituted, and felt myself rich in luxury. I 
remembered gladly that hay was so clean, so free from all 
natural history, and closed my eyes in gratitude. And then 
it smelt so good, so much better than the damp, vegetable 
odor of the moss. A smudge at the end of the wagon was 
rising about me to drive away mosquitoes, and though the 
smoke scalds the eyes in this heroic remedy, I still comforted 
myself with the fresh odor of the hay, and quietly thought 
that life in a manger was not the worst fate that could come 
to one. All this pervading sense of comfort was slightly dis- 
turbed in the night, when I was awakened by a munching 
and crunching at my ear. Wisps of hay were lying over the 
side of the wagon, as it was too warm to leave the curtains 
down, and the attraction proved too much for a stray mule, 
which was quietly eating the pillow from under my head. It 
was well our tent and wagon were placed to one side, quite 
off by themselves, for the General would have waked the 
camp with his peals of laughter at my indignation and mo- 
mentary fright. It did not need much persuasion to rout 



73 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



the mule after all the hubbub my husband made with his 
merriment, but I found that I inclined to the moss bed after 
that. 

As we advanced farther into the forest, Eliza received fur- 
ther whispered confidences about my neck, stiff and sore 
from the roll of patriotic blue that was still the rest for my 
tired head, and she resolved to make an attempt to get a 
feather pillow. One day she discovered, near our camp, a 
house that was cleaner than the rest we had seen, and began 




A MULE LUNCHING FROM A PILLOW. 



negotiations with the mistress. She offered a " greenback," 
as we had no silver then; but they had never seen one, and 
would not believe that it was legal money. Finally, the 
woman said that, if we had any calico or muslin for sale, she 
would exchange her pillows for either the one or the other. 
Eliza forgot her diplomacy, and rather indignantly explained 
that we were not traveling peddlers. At last, after several 
trips to and from our camp, in which I was secretly inter- 
ested, she made what she thought a successful trade- by ex- 
changing some blankets. Like the wag's description of the 



A MILITARY EXECUTION. 79 

first Pullman-car pillows, which he said he lost in his ear, 
they were diminutive excuses for our idea of what one should 
be, but I cannot remember anything that ever impressed me 
as such a luxury; and I was glad to see that, when the pillows 
were installed in their place, the faith in my patriotism and 
in my willingness to endure privations was not shaken. 

The General was satisfied with his soldiers, and admired 
the manner in which they endured the trials of that hard ex- 
perience. His perplexities departed when they took every- 
thing so bravely. He tried to arrange our marches every 
day so that we might not travel over fifteen miles. So far as 
I can remember, there was no one whose temper and strength 
were not tried to the uttermost, except my husband. His 
seeming indifference to excessive heat, his having long before 
conquered thirst, his apparent unconsciousness of the stings 
or bites of insects, were powerful aids in encountering those 
suffocating days. Frequently after a long march, when we 
all gasped for breath, and in our exhaustion flung ourselves 
down " anywhere to die," as we laughingly said, a fresh horse 
was saddled, and off went the General for a hunt, or to look 
up the prospects for water in our next days journey. If this 
stifling atmosphere, to which we were daily subjected, dis- 
turbed him, we did not know it. He held that grumbling 
did not mend matters; but I differed with him. I still think 
a little complaining, when the patience is sorely taxed, eases 
the troubled soul, though at that time I took good care not 
to put my theory into practice, for reasons I have explained 
when the question of my joining the march hung in the bal- 
ance. 

My life in a wagon soon became such an old story that I 
could hardly believe I had ever had a room. It constantly 
reminded me of my father. He had opposed my marrying in 
the army, as I suppose most fond fathers do. His opposition 
caused me great suspense, and I thought, as all the very 
young are apt to, that it was hopeless misery. Now that the 
struggle was ended, I began to recall the arguments of my 
parents. Father's principal one, mindful of the deprivations 



80 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

he had seen officers' wives endure in Michigan's early days, 
was that, after the charm and dazzle of the epaulet had 
passed, I might have to travel "in a covered wagon like an 
emigrant." I told this reason of my father's to my husband, 
and he often laughed over it. When I was lifted from my 
rather lofty apartment, and set down in the tent in the dark 
— and before dawn in a pine forest it is dark — the candle re- 
vealed a twinkle in the eye of a man who could joke before 
breakfast. " I wonder what your father would say now," 
was the oft-repeated remark, while the silent partner scrabbled 
around to get ready for the day. There was always a per- 
vading terror of being late, and I could not believe but that 
it might happen, some day, that thousands of men would be 
kept waiting because a woman had lost her hair-pins. Imag- 
ing the ignominy of any of the little trifles that delay us in 
getting ourselves together, being the cause of detaining an 
expedition in its morning start on the march. Fortunately, 
the soldiers would have been kept in merciful ignorance of 
the cause of the detention, as a commanding officer is not 
obliged to explain why he orders the trumpeter to delay the 
call of " boots and saddles; " but the chagrin would have been 
just as great on the part of the ' ' camp-follower, " and it would 
have given the color of truth to the General's occasional dec- 
laration that "it is easier to command a whole division of 
cavalry than one woman." I made no protest to this declara- 
tion, as I had observed, even in those early days of my mar- 
ried life, that, in matrimonial experiences, the men that 
make open statements of their wrongs in rather a pompous, 
boastful way, are not the real sufferers. Pride teaches subt- 
lety in hiding genuine injuries. 

Though I had a continued succession of frights, while 
prowling around the tent before day hunting my things, be- 
lieving them lost sometimes, and thus being thrown into 
wild stampedes, I escaped the mortification of detaining the 
command. The Frenchman's weariness of a life that was 
given over to buttoning and unbuttoning, was mine, and in 
the short time between reveille and breakfast, I lived through 



A MILITARY EXECUTION. 8 1 

much perturbation of mind, fearing I was behind time, and 
devoutly wished that women who followed the drum could 
have been clothed like the feathered tribe, and ready for the 
wing at a moment's notice. On this expedition I brought 
down the art of dressing in a hurry to so fine a point that I 
could take my bath and dress entirely in seven minutes. My 
husband timed me one day, without my knowledge, and I 
had the honor of having this added to a very brief list of my 
attributes as a soldier. There was a second recommendation, 
which did duty as a mild plaudit for years afterward.' When 
faithful soldiers are discharged after their term of service has 
expired, they have papers given them by the Government, 
with statements of their ability and trustworthiness. Mine 
consisted in the words usually used in presenting me to a 
friend. Instead of referring to a few meagre accomplish- 
ments which my teachers had struggled to implant, as is the 
fashion of some exuberant husbands, who proudly introduce 
their wives to intimate friends, the General usually said, " Oh, 
I want you to know' my wife; she slept four months in a 
wagon." 

Perhaps some people in the States may not realize that 
army women have a hard time even in saying their prayers. 
The closet that the New Testament tells us to frequent is 
seldom ours, for rarely does our frugal Government allow us 
one in army quarters large enough to crowd in our few gowns, 
much less to ' ' enter in and shut the door " ; while on a march 
like that in Texas, devotions would be somewhat disturbed 
when one kneeled down in a tent, uncertain whether it would 
be on a centipede or a horned toad. To say a prayer undis- 
turbed, it was necessary to wait until one went to bed. For- 
tunately, mine were brief, since I had nothing to ask for, as 
I believed the best of everything on earth had already been 
given to me. If I was tired, and fell asleep in the midst of 
my thanks, I could only hope the Heavenly Father would 
forgive me. I was often so exhausted at night, that it was 
hard to keep my eyes open after my head had touched the 
pillow, especially after the acquisition of the blessed feather 



82 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

pillow. An army woman I love, the most consistent and 
honorable of her sex, was once so worn out after a day of 
danger and fatigue on a march, that she fell asleep while 
kneeling beside the bed in the room she occupied, saying her 
prayers; and there she found herself, still on her knees, when 
the sun wakened her in the morning. 



CHAPTER IV. 

MARCHES THROUGH PINE FORESTS. 

For exasperating heat, commend me to a pine forest. 

Those tall and almost branchless Southern pines were sim- 
ply smothering. In the fringed tops the wind swayed the 
delicate limbs, while not a breath descended to us below. 
We fumed and fussed, but not ill-naturedly, when trying to 
find a spot in which to take a nap. If we put ourselves in n 
narrow strip of shadow made by the slender trunk of a tree, 
remorseless Sol followed persistently, and we drowsily dragged 
ourselves to another, to be pursued in the same determined 
manner and stared into instant wakefulness by the burning 
rays. 

The General had reveille sounded at 2 o'clock in the morn- 
ing, causing our scamp to remark, sotto voce, that if we were 
to be routed out in the night, he thought he would eat his 
breakfast the evening before, in order to save time. It was 
absolutely necessary to move before dawn, as the moment 
the sun came in sight the heat was suffocating. It was so 
dark when we set out that it was with difficulty we reached 
the main road, from our night's camp, in safety. My hus- 
band tossed me into the saddle, and cautioned me to follow 
as close as my horse could walk, as we picked our way over 
logs and through ditches or underbrush. Custis Lee * was 
doglike in his behavior at these times. He seemed to aim 
to put his hoof exactly in the footprint of the General's horse. 



* My horse was captured from a staff-officer of General Custis 
Lee during the war, purchased by my husband from the Govern- 
ment, and named for the Confederate general. 

83 



84 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

In times of difficulty or moments of peril, he evidently con- 
sidered that he was following the commanding officer rather 
than carrying me. I scarcely blamed him, much as I liked 
to control my own horse, and gladly let the bridle slacken on 
his neck as he cautiously picked his circuitous way; but once 
on the main road, the intelligent animal allowed me to take 
control again. Out of the dark my husband's voice came 
cheerily, as if he were riding in a path of sunshine: "Are 
you all right ? " " Give Lee his head." "Trust that old plug 
of yours to bring you out ship-shape." This insult to my 
splendid, spirited, high-stepping F. F. V. — for he was that 
among horses, as well as by birth — was received calmly by his 
owner, especially as the sagacious animal was taking better 
care of me than I could possibly take of myself, and I spent 
a brief time in calling out a defense of him through the gloom 
of the forest. This little diversion was indulged in now and 
again by the General to provoke an argument, and thus as- 
sure himself that I was safe and closely following; and so it 
went on, before day and after dark; there was no hour or 
circumstance out of which we did not extract some amuse- 
ment. 

The nights, fortunately, were cool; but such dews fell, and 
it was so chilly that we were obliged to begin our morning 
march in thick coats, which were tossed off as soon as the 
sun rose. The dews drenched the bedding. I was some- 
times sure that it was raining in the night, and woke my 
husband to ask to have the ambulance curtains of our bed 
lowered; but it was always a false alarm; not a drop of rain 
fell in that blistering August. I soon learned to shut our 
clothes in a little valise at night, after undressing in the tent, 
to ensure dry linen in the penetrating dampness of the morn- 
ing. My husband lifted me out of the wagon, when reveille 
sounded, into the tent, and by the light of a tallow candle I 
had my bath and got into my clothes, combing my hair 
straight back, as it was too dark to part it. Then, to keep 
my shoes from being soaked with the wet grass, I was carried 
to the dining-tent, and lifted upon my horse afterward. 



MARCHES THROUGH PINE FORESTS. 85 

One of my hurried toilets was stopped short one morning 
by the loss of the body of my riding-habit. In vain I tossed 
our few traps about to find it. and finally remembered that I 
had exchanged the waist for a jacket, and left it under a tree 
where we had been taking a siesta the day before. Eliza had 
brought in the blanket, books, and hats, but alas for my dress 
body! it was hopelessly lost. In a pine forest, dark and thick 
with fallen trees, what good did one tallow dip do in the 
hasty search we made ? A column of thousands of men could 
not be detained for a woman's gown. My husband had 
asked me to braid the sleeves like his own velvet jacket. Five 
rows of gilt braid in five loops made a dash of color that he 
liked, which, though entirely out of place in a thoroughfare, 
was admissible in our frontier life. He regretted the loss, 
but insisted on sending for more gilt braid as soon as we 
were out of the wilderness, and then began to laugh to him- 
self and wonder if the traveler that came after us, not know- 
ing who had preceded him, might not think he had come 
upon a part of the wardrobe of a circus troupe. It would 
have been rather serious joking if in the small outfit in my 
valise I had not brought a jacket, for which, though it ren- 
dered me more of a fright than sun and wind had made me, 
I still was very thankful; for without the happy accident that 
brought it along, I should have been huddled inside the 
closed ambulance, waistless and alone. Our looks did not 
enter into the question very much. All we thought of was 
how to keep from being prostrated by the heat, and how to 
get rested after the march for the next day's task. 

We had a unique character for a guide. He was a citizen 
of Texas, who boasted that not a road or a trail in the State 
was unfamiliar to him. His mule, Betty, was a trial; she 
walked so fast that no one could keep up with her, but not 
faster did she travel than her master's tongue. As we rode 
at the head of the column, the sun pouring down upon our 
heads, we would call out to him, " In heaven's name, Still- 
man, how much longer is this to keep up?"' meaning, When 
shall we find a creek on which to camp ? " Oh, three miles 



86 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

further you're sure to find a bold-flowin' stream," was his con- 
fident reply; and, sure enough, the grass began to look 
greener, the moss hung from the trees, the pines were varied 
by beautiful cypress, or some low-branched tree, and hope 
sprang up in our hearts. The very horses showed, by quick- 
ening step, they knew what awaited us. Our scorched and 
parched throats began to taste, in imagination, what was our 
idea of a bold-flowing stream — it was cool and limpid, danc- 
ing over pebbles on its merry way. We found ourselves in 
reality in the bed of a dried creek, nothing but pools of 
muddy water, with a coating of green mold on the surface. 
The Custers made use of this expression the rest of their lives. 
If ever we came to a puny, crawling driblet of water, they said, 
"This must be one of Stillman's bold-flowing streams." On 
we went again, with that fabricator calling out from Betty's 
back, " Sho' to find finest water in the land five miles on ! " 
Whenever he had " been in these parts afore, he had always 
found at all seasons a roaring torrent." One day we dragged 
through forty miles of arid land, and after passing the dried 
beds of three streams, the General was obliged to camp at 
last, on account of the exhausted horses, on a creek with 
pools of muddy, standing water, which Stillman, coming 
back to the column, described as "rather low." This was 
our worst day, and we felt the heat intensely, as we usually 
finished our march and were in camp before the sun was very 
high. I do not remember one good drink of water on that 
march. When it was not muddy or stagnant, it tasted of 
the roots of the trees. Some one had given my husband 
some claret for me when we set out, and but for that, I don't 
really know how the thirst of the midsummer days could 
have been endured. The General had already taught him- 
self not to drink between meals, and I was trying to do so. 
All he drank was his mug of coffee in the early morning and 
at dinner, and cold tea or coffee, which Eliza kept in a bot- 
tle, for luncheon. 

The privations did not quench the buoyancy of those gay 
young fellows. The General and his staff told stories and 




GENERAL CUSTER AS A CADET, 



87 



8S TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

sang, and a man with good descriptive powers recounted the 
bills of fare of good dinners and choice viands he had en- 
joyed, while we knew we had nothing to anticipate in this 
wilderness but army fare. Sometimes, as we marched along, 
almost melted with heat, and our throats parched for water, 
the odor of cucumbers was wafted toward us. Stillman, the 
guide, being called pn for an explanation, as we wondered if 
we were nearing a farm, slackened Betty, waited for us, and 
took down our hopes by explaining that it was a certain spe- 
cies of snake, which infested that part of the country. The 
scorpions, centipedes and tarantulas were daily encountered. 
I not only grew more and more unwilling to take my nap, 
after the march was over, under a tree, but made life a bur- 
den to my husband till he gave up flinging himself down 
anywhere to sleep, and induced him to take his rest in the 
traveling wagon. I had been indolently lying outstretched 
in a little grateful shade one day, when I was hurriedly roused 
by some one, and moved to avoid what seemed to me a small, 
dried twig. It was the most venomous of snakes, called the 
pine-tree rattlesnake. It was very strange that we all es- 
caped being stung or bitten in the midst of thousands of 
those poisonous reptiles and insects. One teamster died 
from a scorpion's bite, and, unfortunately, I saw his bloated, 
disfigured body as we marched by. It lay on a wagon, ready 
for burial, without even a coffin, as we had no lumber. 

What was most aggravating were two pests of that region, 
the seed-tick and the chigger. The latter bury their heads 
under the skin, and when they are swollen with blood, it is 
almost impossible to extract them without leaving the head 
imbedded. This festers, and the irritation is almost unbear- 
able. If they see fit to locate on neck, face or arms, it is 
possible to outwit them in their progress; but they generally 
choose that unattainable spot between the shoulders, and the 
surgical operation of taking them out with a needle or knife- 
point, must devolve upon some one else. To ride thus with 
the skin on fire, and know that it must be endured till the 
march was ended, caused some grumbling, but it did not last 



MARCHES THROUGH PINE FORESTS. 89 

long. The enemy being routed, out trilled a song or laugh 
from young and happy throats. If we came to a sandy 
stretch of ground, loud groans from the staff began, and a 
cry, " We're in for the chiggers! " was an immediate warning. 
We all grew very wary of lying down to rest in such a locality, 
but were thankful that the little pests were not venomous! 
There's nothing like being where something dangerous lies 
in wait for you, to teach submission to what is only an irritat- 
ing inconvenience. 

One of the small incidents out of which we invariably ex- 
tracted fun, was our march at dawn past the cabins of the few 
inhabitants. On the open platform, sometimes covered, but 
often with no roof, which connects the two log huts, the 
family are wont to sleep in hot weather. There they lay on 
rude cots, and were only awakened by the actual presence of 
the cavalry, of whose approach they were unaware. The 
children sat up in bed, in wide-gaping wonder; the grown 
people raised their heads, but instantly ducked under the 
covers again, thinking they would get up in a moment, as 
soon as the cavalcade had passed, From time to time a head 
was cautiously raised, hoping to see the end of the column. 
Then such a shout from the soldiers, a fusillade of the wittiest 
comments, such as only soldiers can make — for I never ex- 
pect to hear brighter speeches than issue from a marching 
column — and down went the venturesome head, compelled 
to obey an unspoken military mandate and remain "under 
cover." There these people lay till the sun was scorching 
them, imprisoned under their bed-clothes by modesty, while 
the several thousand men filed by, two by two, and the long 
wagon-train in the rear had passed the house. 

There came a day when I could not laugh and joke with 
the rest. I was mortified to find myself ill— I, who had been 
pluming myself on being such a good campaigner, my desire 
to keep well being heightened by overhearing the General 
boasting to Tom that ' ' nothing makes the old lady ill. " We 
did not know that sleeping in the sun in that climate brings 
on a chill, and I had been frightened away from the snake- 



90 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

infested ground, where there might be shade, to the wagon 
for my afternoon sleep. It was embarrassing in the extreme. 
1 could neither be sent back, nor remain in that wilderness, 
which was infested by guerrillas. The surgeon compelled me 
to lie down on the march. It was very lonely, for I missed 
the laughter and story at the head of the column, which had 
lightened the privations of the journey. The soil was so 
shallow that the wagon was kept on a continual joggle by 
the roots of the trees over which we passed. This uneven- 
ness was of course not noticeable on horseback, but now it 
was painfully so at every revolution of the wheels. The Gen- 
eral and Tom came back to comfort me every now and again, 
while Eliza " mammied " and nursed me, and rode in the 
seat by the driver. It was "break-bone fever." No one 
knowing about it can read these words and not feel a shud- 
der. I believe it is not dangerous, but the patient is intro- 
duced, in the most painful manner, to every bone in his body. 
Incredible as it used to seem when, in school, we repeated 
the number of bones, k now became no longer a wonder, 
and the only marvel was, how some of the smallest on the 
list could contain so large an ache. I used to lie and specu- 
late how one slender woman could possibly conceal so many 
bones under the skin. Anatomy had been on the list of 
hated books in school; but I began then to study it from life, 
in a manner that made it likely to be remembered. The sur- 
geon, as is the custom of the admirable men of that profes- 
sion in the army, paid me the strictest attention, and I swal- 
lowed quinine, it seemed to me, by the spoonful. As I had 
never taken any medicine to speak of, it did its duty quickly, 
and in a few days I was lifted into the saddle, tottering and 
light-headed, but partly relieved from the pain, and very glad to 
get back to our military family, who welcomed me so warmly 
that I was aglow with gratitude. I wished to ignore the fact 
that I had fallen by the way, and was kept in lively fear that 
they would all vote me a bother. After that, my husband 
had the soldiers who were detailed for duty at headquarters, 
when they cut the wood for camp-fires, build a rough shade 



MARCHES THROUGH PINE FORESTS. 91 

of pine branches over the wagon, when we reached camp. 
Even that troubled me, though the kind-hearted fellows did 
not seem to mind it; but the General quieted me by explain- 
ing that the men, being excused from night duty as sentinels, 
would not mind building the shade as much as losing their 
sleep, and, besides, we were soon afterward out of the pine 
forest and on the prairie. 

Our officers suffered dreadfully on that march, though they 
made light of it, and were soon merry after a trial or hard- 
ship was over. The drenching dews chilled the air that was 
encountered just at daybreak. They were then plunged into 
a steam bath from the overpowering sun, and the impure 
water told frightfully on their health. I have seen them turn 
pale and almost reel in the saddle, as we marched on. They 
kept quinine in their vest-pockets, and horrified me by taking 
large quantities at any hour when they began to feel a chill 
coming on, or were especially faint. Our brother Tom did 
not become quite strong, after his attack of fever, for a long 
time, and had inflammatory rheumatism at Fort Riley a year 
or more afterward, which the surgeons attributed to his Texas 
exposure. I used to see the haggard face of the adjutant- 
general, Colonel Jacob Greene, grow drawn and gray with 
the inward fever that filled his veins and racked his bones 
with pain. The very hue of his skin comes back to me after 
all these years, for we grieved over his suffering, as we had 
all just welcomed him back from the starvation of Libby 
Prison. 

I rode in their midst, month after month, ever revolving in 
my mind the question, whence came the inexhaustible supply 
of pluck that seemed at their command, to meet all trials and 
privations, just as their unfaltering courage had enabled them 
to go through the battles of the war? And yet, how much 
harder it was to face such trials, unsupported by the excite- 
ment of the trumpet-call and the charge. There was no 
wild clamor of war to enable them to forget the absence of 
the commonest necessities of existence. In Texas and Kan- 
sas, the life was often for months unattended by excitement 



92 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

of any description. It was only to be endured by a grim 
shutting of the teeth, and an iron will. The mother of one 
of the fallen heroes of the Seventh Cavalry, who passed un- 
complainingly through the privations of the frontier, and 
gave up his life at last, writes to me in a recent letter that 
she considers "those late experiences of hardship and suffer- 
ing, so gallantly borne, by far the most interesting of General 
Custer's life, and the least known." For my part I was con- 
stantly mystified as I considered how our officers, coming 
from all the wild enthusiasm of their Virginia life, could, as 
they expressed it, "buckle down" to the dull, exhausting 
days of a monotonous march. 

Young as I then was, I thought that to endure, to fight for 
and inflexibly pursue a purpose or general principle like 
patriotism, seemed to require far more patience and courage 
than when it is individualized. I did not venture to put my 
thoughts into words, for two reasons : I was too wary to let 
them think I acknowledged there were hardships, lest they 
might think I repented having come ; for I knew then, as I 
know now, but feared they did not, that I would go through 
it all a hundred times over, if inspired by the reasons that 
actuated me. In the second place, I had already found what 
a habit it is to ridicule and make light of misfortune or vicissi- 
tude. It cut me to the quick at first, and I thought the offi- 
cers and soldiers lacking in sympathy. But I learned to 
know what splendid, loyal friends they really were, if mis- 
fortune came and help was needed ; how they denied them- 
selves to loan money, if it is the financial difficulty of a 
friend ; how they nursed one another in illness or accident ; 
how they quietly fought the battles of the absent ; and one 
occasion I remember, that an officer, being ill, was unable to 
help himself when a soldier behaved in a most insolent man- 
ner, and his brother officer knocked him down, but immedi- 
ately apologized to the captain for taking the matter out of 
his hands. A hundred ways of showing the most unswerving- 
fidelity taught me, as years went on, to submit to what I still 
think the deplorable habit, if not of ridicule, of suppressed 



MARCHES THROUGH PINE FORESTS. 93 

sympathy. I used to think that even if a misfortune was not 
serious, it ought to be recognized, and none were afraid of 
showing that they possessed truly tender, gentle, sympathetic 
natures, with me or with any woman that came among them. 
The rivers, and even the small streams, in Texas have high 
banks. It is a land of freshets, and the most innocent little 
rill can rise to a roaring torrent in no time. Anticipating 
these crossings, we had in our train a pontoon bridge. We 
had to make long halts while this bridge was being laid, and 
then, oh ! the getting down to it. If the sun was high, and 
the surgeon had consigned me to the traveling-wagon, I 
looked down the deep gulley with more than inward quaking. 
My trembling hands clutched wildly at the seat and my head 
was out at the side to see my husband's face, as he directed 
the descent, cautioned the driver, and encouraged me. The 
brake was frequently not enough, and the soldiers had to 
man the wheels, for the soil was wet and slippery from the 
constant passing of the pioneer force, who had laid the 
bridge. The heavy wagons, carrying the boats and lumber 
for the bridge, had made the side-hill a difficult bit of ground 
to traverse. The four faithful mules apparently sat down 
and slid to the water's edge ; but the driver, so patient with 
my quiet imploring to go slowly, kept his strong foot on the 
brake and knotted the reins in his powerful hands. I blessed 
him for his caution, and then at every turn of the wheel I 
implored him again to be careful. Finally, when I poured 
out my thanks at the safe transit, the color mounted in his 
brown face, as if he had led a successful charge. In talking 
at night to Eliza, of my tremors as we plunged down the 
bank and were bounced upon the pontoon, which descended 
to the water's edge under the sudden rush with which we 
came, I added my praise of the driver's skill, which she care- 
fully repeated as she slipped him, on the sly, the mug of cof- 
fee and hot biscuits with which she invariably rewarded merit, 
whether in officers or men. When I could, I made these 
descents on horseback, and climbed up the opposite bank 
with my hands wound in Custis Lee's abundant mane. 



94 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Eliza, in spite of her constant lookout for some variety for 
our table, could seldom find any vegetables, even at the huts 
we passed. Corn pone and chine were the principal food of 
these shiftless citizens, butternut-colored in clothing and 
complexion, indifferent alike to food and to drink. At the 
Sabine River the water was somewhat clearer. The soldiers, 
leading their horses, crossed carefully, as it was dangerous to 
stop here, lest the weight should carry the bridge under ; but 
they are too quick-witted not to watch every chance to pro- 
cure a comfort, and they tied strings to their canteens and 
dragged them beside the bridge, getting, even in that short 
progress, one tolerably good drink. The wagon-train was 
of course a long time in crossing, and dinner looked dubious 
to our staff. Our faithful Eliza, as we talk over that march, 
will prove in her own language, better than I can portray, 
how she constantly bore our comfort on her mind: 

" Miss Libbie, do you mind, after we crossed the Sabine 
River, we went into camp? Well, we hadn't much supplies, 
and the wagons wasn't up ; so, as I was a-waitin' for you all, 
I says to the boys, ' Now, you make a fire, and I'll go a-fishin'.' 
The first thing, I got a fish — well, as long as my arm. It was 
big, and jumped so it scart me, and I let the line go, but one 
of the men caught hold and jumped for me and I had him, 
and went. to work on him right away. I cleaned him, salted 
him, rolled him in flour, and fried him ; and, Miss Libbie, we 
had a nice platter of fish, and the General was just delighted 
when he came up, and he was surprised, too, and he found 
his dinner — for I had some cold biscuit and a bottle of tea in 
the lunch-box — while the rest was a-waitin' for the supplies to 
come up. For while all the rest was a-waitin', I went fishin', 
mind you ! " 



CHAPTER V. 

OUT OF THE WILDERNESS. 

As we came out of the forest, the country improved some- 
what. The farm-houses began to show a little look of com- 
fort, and it occurred to us that we might now vary the 
monotony of our fare by marketing. My husband and I 
sometimes rode on in advance of the command, and ap- 
proached the houses with our best manners, soliciting the 
privilege of buying butter and eggs. The farmer's wife was 
taking her first look at Yankees, but she found that we 
neither wore horns nor were cloven-footed, and she even so 
far unbent as to apologize for not having butter, adding, 
what seemed then so flimsy an excuse, that "I don't make 
more than enough butter for our own use, as we are only 
milking seven cows now." We. had yet to learn that what 
makes a respectable dairy at home was nothing in a country 
where the cows give a cupful of milk and all run to horns. 
It was a great relief to get out of the wilderness, but though 
our hardships were great, I do not want them to appear to 
outnumber the pleasures. The absence of creature comforts 
is easily itemized. We are either too warm or too cold, we 
sleep uncomfortably, we have poor food, we are wet by 
storms, we are made ill by exposure. Happiness cannot be 
itemized so readily ; it is hard to define what goes to round 
and complete a perfect day. We remember hours of pleasure 
as bathed in a mist that blends all shades into a roseate hue ; 
but it is impossible to take one tint from colors so perfectly 
mingled, and define how it adds to the perfect whole. 

The days now seemed to grow shorter and brighter. In 
place of the monotonous pines, we had magnolia, mulberry, 

95 



g6 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

pecan, persimmon and live-oak, as well as many of our own 
Northern trees, that grew along the streams. The cactus, 
often four feet high, was covered with rich red blossoms, and 
made spots of gorgeous color in the prairie grass. I had not 
then seen the enormous cacti of old Mexico, and four feet of 
that plant seemed immense, as at home we labored to get 
one to grow six inches. The wild-flowers were charming in 
color, variety and luxuriance. The air, even then beginning 
to taste of the sea, blew softly about us. Stillman no longer 
blackened his soul with prophecies about the streams on 
which we nightly pitched our tents. The water did flow in 
them, and though they were then low, so that the thousands 
of horses were scattered far up and down when watering-time 
came, the green scum of sluggish pools was a thing of the past. 
A few days before we reached what was to be a permanent 
camp, a staff-officer rode out to meet us, and brought some 
mail. It was a strange sensation to feel ourselves restored 
by these letters to the outside world. General Custer re- 
ceived a great surprise. He was brevetted major, lieutenant- 
colonel and brigadier-general in the regular army. The offi- 
cers went off one side to read their sweethearts' letters ; and 
some of our number renewed their youth, sacrificed in that 
dreadful forest to fever, when they read the good news of 
the coming of their wives by sea. At Hempstead we halted, 
and the General made a permanent camp, in order to recruit 
men and horses after their exhausting march. Here General 
Sheridan and some of his staff came, by way of Galveston, 
and brought with them our father Custer, whom the General 
had sent for to pay us a visit. General Sheridan expressed 
great pleasure at the appearance of the men and horses, and 
heard with relief and satisfaction of the orderly manner in 
which they had marched through the enemy's country, of 
how few horses had perished from the heat, and how seldom 
sunstroke had occurred. He commended the General — as 
he knew how to do so splendidly — and placed him in com- 
mand of all the cavalry in the State. Our own Division then 
numbered four thousand men. 



OUT OF THE WILDERNESS. 97 

I was again mortified to have to be compelled to lie down 
for a day or two, as so many weeks in the saddle had brought 
me to the first discovery of a spinal column. It was nothing 
but sheer fatigue, for I was perfectly well, and could laugh 
and talk with the rest, though not quite equal to the effort 
of sitting upright, especially as we had nothing but camp- 
stools, on which it is impossible to rest. Indisposition, or 
even actual illness, has less terrors in army life than in the 
States. We were not condemned to a gloomy upper cham- 
ber in a house, and shut in alone with a nurse whom we had 
never before seen. In our old life, ailing people lay on a 
lounge in the midst of all the garrison, who were coming and 
going a dozen times a day, asking, " How does it go now ? " 
and if you had studied up anything that they could do for 
you ? I principally recall being laid up by fatigue, because 
of the impetuous assault that my vehement father Custer 
made on his son for allowing me to share the discomforts; 
and when I defended my husband by explaining how I had 
insisted upon coming, he only replied, " Can't help it if you 
did. Armstrong, you had no right to put her through such 
a jaunt." It was amusing to see the old man's horror when 
our staff told him what we had been through. It would have 
appeared that I was his own daughter, and the General a 
son-in-law, by the manner in which he renewed his attack 
on the innocent man. Several years afterward it cost Lieu- 
tenant James Calhoun long pleading, and a probationary 
state of two years, before the old man would consent to his 
taking his daughter Margaret into the army. He shook his 
gray head determinedly, and said, "Oh, no; you don't get 
me to say she shall go through what Libbie has." But the 
old gentleman was soon too busy with his own affairs, de- 
fending himself against not only the ingenious attacks of his 
two incorrigible boys, but the staff, some of whom had 
known him in Monroe. His eyes twinkled, and his face 
wrinkled itself into comical smiles, as he came every morn- 
ing with fresh tales of what a " night of it he had put in." 
He had a collection of mild vituperations for the boys, gath- 



98 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ered from Maryland, Ohio and Michigan, where he had 
lived, which, extensive as the list was, did not, in my mind, 
half meet the situation. 

The stream on which we had encamped was wide and 
deep, and had a current. Our tents were on the bank, which 
gently sloped to the water. We had one open at both ends, 
over which was built a shade of pine boughs, which was ex- 
tended in front far enough for a porch. Some lumber from 
a pontoon bridge was made into the unusual luxury of a floor. 
My husband still indulged my desire to have the traveling- 
wagon at the rear, so that I might take up a safe position at 
night, when sleep interrupted my vigils over the insects and 
reptiles that were about us constantly. The cook-tent, with 
another shade over it, was near us, where Eliza flourished a 
skillet as usual. The staff were at some distance down the 
bank, while the Division was stretched along the stream, 
having, at last, plenty of water. Beyond us, fifty miles of 
prairie stretched out to the sea. We encamped on an unused 
part of the plantation of the oldest resident of Texas, who 
came forth with a welcome and offers of hospitality, which 
we declined, as our camp was comfortable. His wife sent me 
over a few things to make our tent habitable, as I suppose 
her husband told her that our furniture consisted of a bucket 
and two camp-stools. There's no denying that I sank down 
into one of the chairs, which had a back, with a sense of en- 
joyment of what seemed to me the greatest luxury I had ever 
known. The milk, vegetables, roast of mutton, jelly, and 
other things which she also sent, were not enough to tempt 
me out of the delightful hollow, from which I thought I never 
could emerge again. But military despots pick up their 
families and carry them out to their dinner, if they refuse to 
walk. The new neighbors offered us a room with them, but 
the General never left his men, and it is superfluous to say 
that I thought our clean, new hospital tent, as large again 
as a wall-tent, and much higher, was palatial after the trials 
of the pine forests. 

The old neighbor continued his kindness, which was re- 



OUT OF THE WILDERNESS. 99 

turned by sending him game after the General's hunt, and 
protecting his estate. He had owned 130 slaves, with forty 
in his house. He gave us dogs and sent us vegetables, and 
spent many hours under our shade. He had lived under 
eight governments in his Texas experience, and, possibly, the 
habit of "speeding the parting and welcoming the coming 
guest ' : had something to do with his hospitality. I did not 
realize how Texas had been tossed about in a game of battle- 
door and shuttle-cock till he told me of his life under Mexi- 
can rule, the Confederacy, and the United States. 

I find mention, in an old letter to my parents, of a great 
luxury that here appeared, and quote the words of the exu- 
berant and much-underlined girl missive: " I rejoice to tell 
you that I am the happy possessor of a mattress. It is made 
of the moss which festoons the branches of all the trees at 
the South. The moss is prepared by boiling it, then burying 
it in the ground for a long time, till only the small thread 
inside is left, and this looks like horse-hair. An old darkey 
furnished the moss for three dollars, and the whole thing 
only cost seven dollars — very cheap for this country. We are 
living finely now; we get plenty of eggs, butter, lard and 
chickens. Eliza cooks better than ever, by a few logs, with 
camp-kettles and stew-pans. She has been washing this past 
week, and drying her things on a line tied to the tent-poles 
and on bushes, and ironing on the ground, with her ironing- 
sheet held down by a stone on each corner. To-day we are 
dressed in white. She invites us to mark Sunday by the lux- 
ury of wearing white. Her ' ole miss used to.' We are reg- 
ulated by the doings of that ' ole miss,' and I am glad that 
among the characteristics of my venerable predecessor, 
which we are expected to follow, wearing white gowns is in- 
cluded." 

Eliza, sitting here beside me to-day, has just reminded me 
of that week, as it was marked in her memory by a catastro- 
phe. Eliza's misfortunes were usually within the confines of 
domestic routine. I quote her words: " It was on the Gros 
Creek, Miss Libbie, that I had out that big wash, and all your 



L 



IOO TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

lace-trimmed things, and all the Ginnel's white linen pants 
and coats. I didn't know nothin' 'bout the high winds then, 
but I ain't like to forget 'em ever again. The first thing I 
I knew, the line was jest lifted up, and the clothes jest spread 
in every direction, and I jest stood still and looked at 'em, 
and I says, ' Is this Texas ? How long am I to contend with 
this ? ' [With hands uplifted and a camp-meeting roll in her 
eyes.] But I had to go to work and pick 'em all up. Some 
fell in the sand, and some on the grass. I gathered 'em all, 
with the sun boiling down hot enough to cook an egg. 
While I was a-pickin' 'em up, the Ginnel was a-standin' in 
the tent entrance, wipin' down his moustache, like he did 
when he didn't want us to see him laughin'. Well, Miss 
Libbie, I was that mad when he hollered out to me, ' Well, 
Eliza, you've got a spread-eagle thar.' Oh, I was so mad and 
hot, but he jest bust right out laughin'. But there wasn't 
anything to do but rinse and hang 'em up again." 

We had been in camp but a short time when the daughter 
of the newly appointed collector of the port came from their 
plantation near to see us. She invited me to make my home 
with them while we remained, but I was quite sure there was 
nothing on earth equal to our camp. The girl's father had 
been a Union man during the war, and was hopelessly inva- 
lided by a long political imprisonment. I remember nothing 
bitter, or even gloomy, about that hospitable, delightful fam- 
ily. The young girl's visit was the precursor of many more, 
and our young officers were in clover. There were three 
young women in the family, and they came to our camp and 
rode and drove with us, while we made our first acquaintance 
with Southern home life. The house was always full of 
guests. The large dining-table was not long enough, how- 
ever, unless placed diagonally across the dining-room, and it 
was sometimes laid three times before all had dined. The 
upper part of the house was divided by a hall running the 
length of the house. On one side the women and their guests 
— usually a lot of rollicking girls — were quartered, while the 
men visitors had rooms opposite; and then I first saw the 



OUT OF THE WILDERNESS. IOI 

manner in which a Southern gallant comes as a suitor or a 
friend. He rode up to the house with his servant on anoth- 
er horse, carrying a portmanteau. They came to stay several 
weeks. I wondered that there was ever an uncongenial mar- 
riage in the South, when a man had such a chance to see his 
sweetheart. This was one of the usages of the country that 
our Northern men adopted when they could get leave to be 
absent from camp, and delightful visits we all had. 

It seemed a great privilege to be again with women, after 
the long season in which I had only Eliza to represent the 
sex. But I lost my presence of mind when I went into a 
room for the first time and caught a glimpse of myself in a 
mirror. The only glass I had brought from the East was 
broken early in the march, and I had made my toilet by feel- 
ing. The shock of the apparition comes back to me afresh, 
and the memory is emphasized by my fastidious mother's 
horror when she saw me afterward. I had nothing but a nar- 
row-brimmed hat with which to contend against a Texas sun. 
My face was almost parboiled and swollen with sunburn, 
while my hair was faded and rough. Of course, when I 
caught the first glimpse of myself in the glass I instantly hur- 
ried to the General and Tom, and cried out indignantly, 
"Why didn't you tell me how horridly I looked ? " — the in- 
consistent woman in me forgetting that it would not have 
made my ugliness any easier to endure. My husband hung 
his head in assumed humility when he returned me to my 
mother, six months later, my complexion seemingly hope- 
lessly thickened and darkened; for, though happily it im- 
proved after living in a house, it never again looked as it did 
before the Texas life. My indignant mother looked as if her 
son-in-law was guilty of an unpardonable crime. I told her, 
rather flippantly, that it had been offered up on the altar of 
my country, and she ought to be glad to have so patriotic a 
family; but she withered the General with a look that spoke 
volumes. He took the first opportunity to whisper conde- 
scendingly that, though my mother was ready to disown me, 
and quite prepared to annihilate him, he would endeavor not 



102 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

to cast me off, if I was black, and would try to like me, " not- 
withstanding all." 

The planters about the country began to seek out the Gen- 
eral, and invite him to go hunting; and, as there was but lit- 
tle to do while the command was recruiting from the march, 
he took his father and the staff and went to the different 
plantations where the meet was planned. The start was 
made long before day, and breakfast was served at the house 
where the hunters assembled, dinner being enjoyed at the 
same hospitable board on the return at night. Each planter 
brought his hounds, and I remember the General's delight 
at his first sight of the different packs— thirty-seven dogs in 
all— and his enthusiasm at finding that every dog responded 
to his master's horn. He thereupon purchased a horn, and 
practiced in camp until he nearly split his cheeks in twain, 
not to mention the spasms into which we were driven; for 
his five hounds, presents from the farmers, ranged themselves 
in an admiring and sympathetic semicircle, accompanying all 
his practicing by tuning their voices until they reached the 
same key. I had no idea it was such a difficult thing to 
learn to sound notes on a horn. When we begged off some- 
times from the impromptu serenades of the hunter and his 
dogs, the answer was, " I am obliged to practice, for if any- 
one thinks it is an easy thing to blow on a horn, just let him 
try it." Of course Tom caught the fever, and came in one 
day with the polished horn of a Texas steer ready for action. 
The two were impervious to ridicule. No detailed description 
of their red, distended cheeks, bulging eyes, bent and labo- 
rious forms, as they struggled, suspended the operation. 
The early stages of this horn music gave little idea of the gay 
picture of these debonair and spirited athletes, as they after- 
ward appeared. When their musical education was com- 
pleted, they were wont to leap into the saddle, lift the horn 
in unconscious grace to their lips, curbing their excited and 
rearing horses with the free hand, and dash away amidst the 
frantic leaping, barking and joyous demonstration of their 
dogs. 



OUT OF THE WILDERNESS. 103 

At the first hunt, when one of our number killed a deer, 
the farmers made known to our officers, on the sly, the old 
established custom of the chase. While Captain Lyon stood 
over his game, volubly narrating, in excited tones,Tiow the 
shot had been sent and where it had entered, a signal, which 
he was too absorbed to notice, was given, and the crowd 
rushed upon him and so plastered him with blood from the 
deer that scarcely an inch of his hair, hands and face was 
spared, while his garments were red from neck to toes. 
After this baptism of gore, they dragged him to our tent on 
their return, to exhibit him, and it was well that he was one 
of the finest-hearted fellows in the world, for day and night 
these pestering fellows kept up the joke. Notwithstanding 
he had been subjected to the custom of the country, which 
demands that the blood of the first deer killed in the chase 
shall anoint the hunter, he had glory enough through his 
success to enable him to submit to the penalty. 

Tom also shot a deer that day, but his glory was dimmed by 
a misfortune, of which he seemed fated never to hear the last. 
The custom was to place one or two men at stated intervals 
in different parts of the country where the deer were pretty 
sure to run, and Tom was on stand watching through the 
woods in the direction from which the sound of the dogs 
came. As the deer bounded toward him, he was so excited 
that when he fired, the shot went harmlessly by the buck 
and landed in one of the General's dogs, killing the poor 
hound instantly. Though this was a loss keenly felt, there 
was no resisting the chance to guy the hunter. Even after 
Tom had come to be one of the best shots in the Seventh 
Cavalry, and when the General never went hunting without 
him, if he could help it, he continued to say, " Oh, Tom's a 
good shot, a sure aim — he's sure to hit something ! " Tom 
was very apt, also, to find newspaper clippings laid around, 
with apparent carelessness by his brother, where he would 
see them. For example, like this one, which I have kept 
among some old letters, as a reminder of those merry days: 
" An editor went hunting the other day, for the first time in 



104 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

twenty-two years, and he was lucky enough to bring down 
an old farmer by a shot in the leg. The distance was sixty- 
six yards." 

We had long and delightful rides over the level country. 
Sometimes my husband and I, riding quietly along at twi- 
light, for the days were still too warm for much exercise at 
noon-time, came upon as many as three coveys of quail scur- 
rying to the underbrush. In a short walk from camp he 
could bag a dozen birds, and we had plenty of duck in the 
creek near us. The bird dog was a perpetual pleasure. She 
was the dearest, chummiest sort of house-dog, and when we 
took her out she still visited with us perpetually, running to 
us every now and again to utter a little whine, or to have us 
witness her tail, which, in her excitement in rushing through 
the underbrush, cacti and weeds, was usually scratched, torn 
and bleeding. The country was so dry that we could roam 
at will, regardless of roads. Our horses were accustomed to 
fording streams, pushing their way through thickets and 
brambles, and becoming so interested in making a route 
through them that my habit sometimes caught in the briars, 
and my hat was lifted off by the low-hanging moss and 
branches; and if I was not very watchful, the horse would go 
through a passage between two trees just wide enough for 
himself, and rub me off, unless I scrambled to the pommel. 
The greater the obstacles my husband encountered, even in 
his sports, the more pleasure it was to him. His own horses 
were so trained that he shot from their backs without their 
moving. Mine would also stand fire, and at the report of a 
gun, behaved much better than his mistress. 

Eliza, instead of finding the General wearing his white 
linen to celebrate Sunday, according to her observances, was 
apt to get it on week-days after office-hours, far too often to 
suit her. On the Sabbath, she was immensely puffed up to 
see him emerge from the tent, speckless and spotless, because 
she said to me, "Whilst the rest of the officers is only too 
glad to get a white shirt, the Ginnel walks out among 'em 
all, in linen from top to toe." She has been sitting beside 



OUT OF THE WILDERNESS. 105 

me, talking over a day at that time: " Do you mind, Miss 
Libbie, that while we was down in Texas the Ginnel was 
startin' off on a deer-hunt, I jest went up to him and tole 
him, ' Now, Ginnel, you go take off them there white pants.' 
He said so quiet, sassy, cool, roguish-like, ' The deer always 
like something white ' — telling me that jest 'cause he wanted 
to keep 'em on. Well, he went, all the same, and when he 
came back, I says, ' I don't think the deer saw you in those 
pants.' He was covered with grass-stains and mud, and a 
young fawn swinging across the saddle. But them pants 
was mud and blood, and green and yellow blotches, from 
hem to bindin'. But he jest laughed at me because I was 
a-scoldin', and brought the deer out to me, and I skinned it 
the fust time I ever did, and cooked it next day, and we had 
a nice dinner." 

At that time Eliza was a famous belle. Our colored coach- 
man, Henry, was a permanent fixture at the foot of her 
throne, while the darkeys on the neighboring plantations 
came nightly to worship. She bore her honors becomingly, 
as well as t.he fact that she was the proud possessor of a 
showy outfit, including silk dresses. The soldiers to whom 
Eliza had been kind in Virginia had given her clothes that 
they had found in the caches where the farmers endeavored 
to hide their valuables during the war. Eliza had made one 
of these very receptacles for her " ole miss" before she left 
the plantation, and while her conscience allowed her to take 
the silken finery of some other woman whom she did not 
know, she kept the secret of the hiding-place of her own peo- 
ple's valuables until after the war, when the General sent her 
home in charge of one of his sergeants to pay a visit. Even 
the old mistress did not know the spot that Eliza had chosen, 
which had been for years a secret, and she describes the joy 
at sight of her, and her going to the place in the field and 
digging up the property "with right smart of money, too, 
Miss Libbie — enough, with that the Ginnel gave me to take 
home, to keep 'em till the crops could be harvested." 

This finery of Eliza's drove a woman servant at the next 



106 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

place to plan a miserable revenge, which came near sending 
us all into another world. We were taking our breakfast one 
morning, with the table spread under the awning in front of 
our tent. The air, not yet heated by the sun, came over the 
prairie from the sea. The little green swift and the chame- 
leon, which the General had found in the arbor roof and tam- 
ed as pets, looked down upon as reposeful and pretty a 
scene as one could wish, when we suddenly discovered a 
blaze in the cook-tent, where we had now a stove — but Eliza 
shall tell the story; " When I fust saw the fire, Miss Libbie, 
I was a-waitin' on you at breakfast. Then the first thought 
was the Ginnel's powder-can, and I jest dropped everythin' 
and ran and found the blaze was a-runnin' up the canvas of 
my tent, nearly reachin' the powder. The can had two 
handles, and I ketched it up and ran outside. When I first 
got in the tent, it had burnt clar up to the ridge-pole on one 
side. Some things in my trunk was scorched mightily, and 
one side of it was pretty well burnt. The fire was started 
right behind my trunk, not very near the cook-stove. The 
Ginnel said to me how cool and deliberate I was, and he told 
me right away that if my things had been destroyed, I would 
have everythin' replaced, for he was bound I wasn't going to 
lose nothin'." 

My husband, in this emergency, was as cool as he always 
was. He followed Eliza as she ran for the powder-can, and 
saved the tent and its contents from destruction, and, with- 
out doubt, saved our lives. The noble part that I bore in the 
moment of peril was to take a safe position in our tent, wring 
my hands and cry. If there was no one else to rush forward 
in moments of danger, courage came unexpectedly, but I do 
not recall much brave volunteering on my part. 

Eliza put such a broad interpretation upon the General's 
oft-repeated instruction not to let any needy person go away 
from our tent or quarters hungry, that occasionally we had 
to protest. She describes to me now his telling her she 
was carrying her benevolence rather too far, and her reply- 
ing, "Yes, Ginnel, I do take in some one once and awhile, 



OUT OF THE WILDERNESS. 107 

off and on." " Yes," he replied to me, " more on than off, I 
should say. " ' ' One chile I had to hide in the weeds a week, 
Miss Libbie. The Ginnel used to come out to the cook-tent 
and stand there kinder careless like, and he would spy a lit- 
tle path running out into the weeds. Well, he used to carry 
me high and dry about them little roads leading off to folks 
he said I was a-feedin.' I would say, when I saw him lookin' 
at the little path in the weeds, 'Well, what is it, Ginnel?' 
He would look at me so keen-like out of his eyes, and say, 
'That's what / say.' Then he'd say he was goin' to get a 
couple of bloodhounds, and run 'em through the bushes to 
find out just how many I was a-feedin'. Then, Miss Libbie, 
we never did come to a brush or a thicket but that he would 
look around at me so kinder sly like, and tell me that would 
be a fust-rate ranch for me. Then I would say. ■ Well, it's a 
good thing I do have somebody sometimes, 'cause my cook- 
tent is alius stuck way off by itself, and it's lonesome, and 
sometimes I'm so scart.' "But, you know, Miss Libbie," she 
added, afraid I might think she reflected on one whose mem- 
ory she reveres, " my tent was obliged to be a good bit off, 
'cause the smell of the cookin' took away the Ginnel's appe- 
tite; he was so uncertain like in his eatin', you remember." 

In Texas, two wretched little ragamuffins— one, of the poor 
white trash, and another a negro— were kept skulking about 
the cook-tent, making long, circuitous detours to the creek 
for water, for fear we would see them, as they said "Miss 
Lize tole us you'd make a scatter if you knew ' no 'count ' 
chillern was a-bein' fed at the cook-tent." They slipped into 
the underbrush at our approach, and lay low in the grass at 
the rear of the tent if they heard our voices. The General 
at first thought that, after Eliza had thoroughly stuffed them 
and made them fetch and carry for her, they would disap- 
pear, and so chose to ignore their presence, pretending he 
had not seen them. But at last they appeared to be a per- 
manent addition, and we concluded that the best plan would 
be to acknowledge their presence and make the best of the 
infliction; so we named one Texas, and the other Jeff. Eliza 



io8 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



beamed, and told the orphans, who capered out boldly in 
sight for the first time, and ran after Miss " Lize " to do her 




bidding. Both of them, from being 
starved, wretched, and dull, grew 
quite " peart " under her care. The 
first evidence of gratitude I had was 
the creeping into the tent of the 
little saffron-colored white boy, with 
downcast eyes, mumbling that "Miss 
Lize said that I could pick the scor- 
pions out of your shoes." I asked, 
in wonder — one spark of generosity 
blazing up before its final oblitera- 
tion — "And how, in the name of 
mercy, do you get on with the things 
yourself?" He lifted up a dimin- 
utive heel, and proudly showed me 
a scar. The boy had probably 
never had on a pair of shoes, conse- 
quently this part of his pedal extremity was absolutely so cal- 
lous, so evidently obdurate to any object less penetrating than 
a sharpened spike driven in with a hammer, I found myself 



Colly w^tamdat^ 



OUT OF THE WILDERNESS. IO9 

wondering how a scorpion's little spear could have effected 
an entrance through the seemingly impervious outer cuticle. 
Finally, I concluded that at a more tender age that "too 
solid flesh" may have been susceptible to an "honorable 
wound." It turned out that this cowed and apparently life- 
less little midget was perfectly indifferent to scorpions. By 
this time I no longer pretended to courage of any sort; I had 
found one in my trunk, and if, after that, I was compelled to 
go to it. I flung up the lid, ran to the other side of the tent, and 
"shoo-shooed " with that eminently senseless feminine call 
which is used alike for cows, geese, or any of these acknowl- 
edged foes. Doubtless a bear would be greeted with the same 
word, until the supposed occupants had run off. Night and 
morning my husband shook and beat my clothes while he 
helped me to dress. The officers daily came in with stories 
of the trick, so common to the venomous reptiles, of hiding 
between the sheets, and the General then even shook the 
bedding in our eyrie room in the wagon. Of all this he was re- 
lieved by the boy that Eliza called " poor little picked spar- 
row," who was appointed as my maid. Night and morning 
the yellow dot ran his hands into shoes, stockings, night-gown, 
and dress-sleeves, in all the places where the scorpions love 
to lurk; and I bravely and generously gathered myself into 
the armchair while the search went on. 

Eliza has been reminding me of our daily terror of the 
creeping, venomous enemy of those hot lands. She says, 
"One day, Miss Libbie, I got a bite, and I squalled out to 
the Ginnel, ' Somethin's bit me ! ' The Ginnel, he said, ' Bit 
you ! bit you whar?' I says, 'On my arm;' and, Miss Lib- 
bie, it was pizen, for my arm it just swelled enormous and 
got all up in lumps. Then it pained me so the Ginnel stopped 
a-laughin' and sent for the doctor, and he giv' me a drink of 
whiskey. Then what do you think ! when I got better, didn't 
he go and say I was play in' off on him, just to get a big 
drink of whiskey ? But I 'clar' to you, Miss Libbie, I was bad 
off that night. The centipede had crept into my bedclothes, 
and got a good chance at me, I can tell you." 



IIO TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Our surgeon was a naturalist, and studied up the vipers 
and venomous insects of that almost tropical land. He 
showed me a captured scorpion one day, and, to make me 
more vigilant, infuriated the loathsome creature till it flung 
its javelin of a tail over on its back and stung itself to death. 

Legends of what had happened to army women who had 
disregarded the injunctions for safety were handed down 
from elder to subaltern, and a plebe fell heir to these stories 
as much as to the tactics imparted by his superiors, or the 
campaigning lore. I hardly know when I first heard of the 
unfortunate woman who lingered too far behind the caval- 
cade, in riding for pleasure or marching, and was captured 
by the Indians, but for ten years her story was related to me 
by officers of all ages and all branches of the service as a 
warning. In Texas, the lady who had been frightfully stung 
by a centipede pointed every moral. The sting was inflicted 
before the war, and in the far back days of " angel sleeves," 
which fell away from the arm to the shoulder. Though this 
misfortune dated back from such a distant period, the young 
officers, in citing her as a warning to us to be careful, de- 
scribed the red marks all the way up the arm, with as much 
fidelity as if they had seen them. No one would have 
dreamed that the story had filtered through so many chan- 
nels. But surely one needed little warning of the centipede. 
Once seen, it made as red stains on the memory as on the 
beautiful historic arm that was used to frighten us. The 
Arabs call it the mother of forty-four, alluding to the legs; 
and the swift manner in which it propels itself over the 
ground, aided by eight or nine times as many feet as are 
allotted to ordinary reptiles, makes one habitually place him- 
self in a position for a quick jump or flight while campaign- 
ing in Texas. We had to be watchful all the time we were 
in the South. Even in winter, when wood was brought in 
and laid down beside the fireplace, the scorpions, torpid 
with cold at first, crawled out of knots and crevices, and 
made a scattering till they were captured, One of my friends 
was stationed at a post where the quarters were old and of 



OUT OF THE WILDERNESS. Ill 

adobe, and had been used during the war for stables by the 
Confederates. It was of no use to try to exterminate these 
reptiles; they run so swiftly it takes a deft hand and a sure 
stroke to finish them up. Our officers grew expert in devising 
means to protect themselves, and, in this instance, a box of 
moist mud, with a shingle all ready, was kept in the quarters. 
When a tarantula showed himself, he was plastered on the 
wall. It is impossible to describe how loathsome that great 
spider is. The round body and long, far-reaching legs are 
covered with hairs, each particular hair visible; and the satanic 
eyes bulge out as they come on in your direction, making a 
feature of every nightmare for a long time after they are first 
seen. The wife of an officer, to keep these horrors from drop- 
ping on her bed as they ran over the ceiling, had a sheet fasten- 
ed at the four corners and let down from the rough rafters to 
catch all invaders, and thus insured herself undisturbed sleep. 
Officers all watch and guard the women who share their 
hardships. Even the young, unmarried men — the bachelor 
officers, as they are called — patterning after their elders, 
soon fall into a sort of fatherly fashion of looking out for the 
comfort and safety of the women they are with, whether old 
or young, pretty or ugly. It often happens that a comrade, 
going on a scout, gives his wife into their charge. I think 
of a hundred kindly deeds shown to all of us on the frontier; 
and I have known of acts so delicate that I can hardly refer 
to them with sufficient tact, and wish I might write with a 
tuft of thistle-down. In the instance of some very young 
women— with hearts so pure and souls so spotless they could 
not for one moment imagine there lived on earth people de- 
praved enough to question all acts, no matter how harmless 
in themselves — I have known a little word of caution to be 
spoken regarding some exuberance of conduct that arose 
from the excess of a thoughtless, joyous heart. The hus- 
band who returned to his wife could thank the friend who 
had watched over his interests no more deeply than the wife 
who owed her escape from criticism to his timely word. 
And sometimes, when we went into the States, or were at a 



112 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

post with strange officers, it would not occur to us, gay and 
thoughtless as we were, that we must consider that we were 
not among those with whom we had "summered and win- 
tered;" and the freedom and absolute naturalness of man- 
ner that arose from our long and intimate relationship in 
isolated posts, ought perhaps to give way to more formal con- 
duct. If the women said to the men, " Now we are among 
strangers, do you not think they would misunderstand our 
dancing or driving or walking together just as fearlessly as 
at home?" That was sufficient. The men said, "Sure 
enough ! It never occurred to me. By Jove ! I wish we were 
back where a fellow need not be hampered by having every act 
questioned;" and then no one sought harder or more carefully 
so to act that we might satisfy the exactions of that censorious 
group of elderly women who sat in hotel parlors, looking on 
and remarking, ' 'We did not do so when we were girls, " or even 
some old frump in a garrison we visited, who, having squeezed 
dry her orange of life, was determined that others should get 
no good out of theirs if she could insert one drop of gall. 

Occasionally the young officers, perhaps too timid to ven- 
ture on a personal suggestion, sent us word by roundabout 
ways that they did not want us to continue to cultivate some- 
one of whom we knew nothing save that he was agreeable. 
How my husband thanked them ! He walked the floor with his 
hands behind him, moved so that his voice was unsteady, and 
said his say about what he owed to men who would not let a 
woman they valued be even associated with any one who might 
reflect on them. He was a home-lover, and not being with 
those who daily congregated at the sutler's store, the real 
" gossip-mill" of a garrison, he heard but little of what was 
going on. A man is supposed to be the custodian of his own 
household in civil life; but it must be remembered that in our 
life a husband had often to leave a young and inexperienced 
bride to the care of his comrades while he went off for months 
of field duty. The grateful tears rise now in my eyes at the rec- 
ollection of men who guarded us from the very semblance of 
evil as if we had been their sisters. 



CHAPTER VI. 

A TEXAS NORTHER. 

We had not been long in our camp at Hempstead, before 
the wives of two of the staff arrived by way of Galveston. 
Their tents were put on a line with or near ours, and arbors 
built over them. One of these women, Mrs. Greene, had 
been one of my dearest girlhood friends, and every pleasure 
of my happy life was enhanced by the presence of this lovely 
woman. We all went out, after the heat of the day, on long 
rides about the country. Our father Custer was a fine rider, 
and not only sat his horse well, but it was almost impossible 
to unseat him. He grew more wary and watchful of his tor- 
menting sons every day. If they halted, apparently only to 
say a casual word or so to their paternal, that keen old man 
spurred his horse to one side with the agility of a circus-rider, 
just in time to avoid the flying heels of the horse of his off- 
spring in front of him, which had been taught to fling his 
hoofs up when touched just back of the saddle. If both 
boys came together and rode one on each side of him, he 
looked uneasily from one to the other, suspicious of this sud- 
den exhibition of friendship; and well he might, for while 
one fixed his attention by some question that provoked an 
answer, usually about politics, the other gave a quick rap on 
the back of the horse, and the next thing, the father was 
grasping the pommel to keep from being flung forward of the 
animal as he threw up his heels and plunged his head down, 
making the angle of an incline plane. Even when, after a 
concerted plan, one rode up and pulled the cape of the elder 
man's overcoat over his head and held it there a moment, 
while the other gave the horse a cut, he sat like a centaur, 

"3 



114 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

and no surprise unseated him or loosened his grip on the reins. 
They knew his horsemanship well, as he had ridden after the 
hounds in Maryland and Virginia in his younger days, and 
had taught them to sit a horse bareback, when their little fat 
legs were too short to describe a curve on the animal's side. 
Of course I was always begging to have them spare father, 
but it was needless championship. He enjoyed their pranks 
with all his fun-loving soul. 

It was very hard to get postage, and he was unwary enough 
one day — on account of the color being the same as the issue 
of that year — to buy a dollar's worth of his eldest scion, only 
to find them old ones, such as were used before the war. 
Whether he considered the joke worth a dollar, I could not 
decipher, for he was silent; but soon afterward he showed me 
an envelope marked in the writing of his son Armstrong, 
"Conscience-money," containing the$i unlawfully obtained. 

We were invited one night to go to a coon-hunt, conducted 
in the real old Southern style. The officers wanted us to see 
some hunting, but were obliged to leave us behind hitherto 
when they crossed the Brazos River on deer-hunts, and were 
the guests of the planters in the chase, that began before 
dawn and lasted all day. We had thickets, underbrush and 
ditches to encounter, before the dogs treed the coon; then a 
little darkey, brought along for the climbing, went up into 
the branches and dislodged the game, which fell among our 
and the neighbors' dogs. No voice excited them more wildly 
than the " Whoop-la! " of our old father, and when we came 
home at 2 A. m., carrying a coon and a possum, he was as 
fresh as the youngest of us. 

The citizens surrounding us were so relieved to find that 
our troops left them unmolested, they frankly contrasted the 
disciplined conduct with the lawlessness to which they had 
been witness in States where the Confederate army was 
stationed. But they scarcely realized that an army in time 
of peace is much more restricted. They could hardly say 
enough about the order that was carried out, preventing the 
negroes from joining the column as it marched into Texas. 



A TEXAS NORTHER. 1 1 5 

There was no way of taking care of them, and the General 
directed that none should follow, so they went back, con- 
tented to work where they would be fed and clothed. 

One reason that our life seemed to me the very perfection 
of all that is ever attained on earth was, that the rumors of 
trouble with Mexico had ceased. The demands of our Gov- 
ernment had been complied with; but it was thought best to 
keep the troops in the field the rest of the year, though there 
was to be no war. 

Our first experience with a Texas norther surprised and 
startled us. It came on in the night, preceded by the usual 
heavy, suffocating air which renders breathing an effort. 
After this prelude, the wild blast of wind swept down on us 
with a fury indescribable. We heard the roar as it approached 
over the stretch of prairie between us and the sea. Our tent, 
though it was guyed by ropes stretched from the ridge-pole 
to a strong post driven far into the ground, both in front and 
at the rear, shook, rattled, and flapped as if with the rage of 
some human creature. It was twisted and wrenched from 
side to side; the arbor overhead seemed to toss to and fro, 
and the wagon rocked in a crazy effort to spill us out. Though 
the ropes stretched and cracked like cordage at sea, and the 
canvas flapped like loosened sails, we did not go down. 
Indeed, rocked in this improvised "cradle of the deep," it 
was hard to tell whether one was at sea or on land. I begged 
to get up and dress for the final collapse that I was sure was 
coming, but my husband quieted me and calmed my fears, 
believing that the approaching rain would still the wind, as 
it eventually did. Next morning a scene of havoc was visible. 
Our neighbors crept out of their tents, and we women, in a 
little whispered aside, exchanged our opinions upon the 
climate of the " Sunny South." 

They also had passed a night of terror, but fortunately 
their tents did not go down. Mrs. Lyon had just come from 
the North, and expected to join her husband; meanwhile she 
was our guest, and the General and I had endeavored to give 
her as cordial a welcome as we could, feeling that all must be 



Il6 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

so strange to her after the security and seclusion of her girl- 
hood's home. The night preceding the norther we took her 
to her tent near ours, and helped her arrange for the night, 
assuring her that we were so near that we could hear her 
voice, if she was in the least afraid. We, being novices in 
the experience of that climate and its gales, had no idea the 
wind would rise to such concert pitch that no voice could be 
distinguished. She said that when we fastened her in from 
the outside world with two straps, she felt very uncertain 
about her courage holding out. We kept on assuring her 
not to be afraid, but on bidding her good-night and saying 
again not to be in the least disturbed, that the sentinel walked 
his beat in front of her tent all night, she dared not own up 
that this assurance did not tend to soothe her anxious fears, 
for she thought she would be more afraid of the guard than 
of anything else. And as I think of it, such a good-night 
from us was rather unsatisfactory. My husband, soldier-like, 
put the utmost faith in the guard, and I, though only so 
short a time before mortally afraid of the stern, unswerving 
warrior myself, had soon forgotten that there were many 
timid women in the world who knew nothing of sleeping 
without locks or bolts, and thought, perhaps, that at the 
slightest ignorance or dereliction of duty the sentinel would 
fire on an offender, whether man or woman. Added to this 
fear of the sentinel, the storm took what remnant of nerve 
she had left; and though she laughed next morning about 
her initiation into the service of the Government, there were 
subsequent confessions to the horror of that unending night. 
In talking with Major and Mrs. Lyon nowadays, when it is 
my privilege to see them, there seemed to be no memories 
but pleasant ones of our Texas life. They might well cherish 
two reminiscences as somewhat disturbing, for Mrs. Lyon's 
reception by the hurricane, and the Major's baptism of gore 
when he killed his first deer, were not scenes that would bear 
frequent repetition and only leave pleasant memories. 

The staff-officers had caused a long shade to be built, in- 
stead of shorter ones, which would have stood the storms 



A TEXAS NORTHER. 117 

better. Under this all of their tents were pitched in two 
rows facing each other; and protected by this arbor, they 
daily took the siesta which is almost compulsory there in the 
heat of the noontide. Now the shade was lifted off one side 
and tilted over, and some of the tents were also flat. Among 
them was that of our father Custer. He had extricated him- 
self with difficulty from under the canvas, and described his 
sensations so quaintly that his woes were greeted with roars 
of laughter from us all. After narrating the downfall of his 
"rag house," he dryly remarked that it would seem, owing 
to the climate and other causes, he was not going to have 
much uninterrupted sleep, and, looking slyly at the staff, he 
added that his neighborhood was not the quietest he had 
ever known. 

The letters home at that time, in spite of their description 
of trivial events, and the exuberant underlined expressions of 
girlish pleasure over nothings, my father enjoyed and pre- 
served. I find that our idle Sundays were almost blanks in 
life, as we had no service and the hunting and riding were 
suspended. I marked the day by writing home, and a few 
extracts will perhaps present a clearer idea of the life there 
than anything that could be written now: 

" Every Sunday I wake up with the thought of home, and 
wish that we might be there and go to church with you. I 
can imagine how pleasant home is now. Among other lux- 
uries, I see with my ' mind's eye,' a large plate of your nice 
apples on the dining-room table. I miss apples here; none 
grow in this country; and a man living near here told our 
Henry that he hadn't seen one for five years. Father Custer 
bought me some small, wrthered-looking ones for fifty cents 
apiece. It seems so strange that in this State, where many 
planters live who are rich enough to build a church individ- 
ually, there is such a scarcity of churches. Why, at the 
North, the first knowledge one has of the proximity of a vil- 
lage is by seeing a spire, and a church is almost the first 
building put up when a town is laid out. Here in this coun- 
try it is the last to be thought of. Cotton is indeed king. 



Il8 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

The cake you sent to me by Nettie Greene, dear mother, was 
a perfect godsend. Oh, anything you make does taste so 
good! 

"Our orderly has perfected a trade for a beautiful little 
horse for me, so that when Custis Lee's corns trouble him, I 
am not obliged to take the choice of staying at home or rid- 
ing one of Armstrong's prancers. The new horse has cun- 
ning tricks, getting down on his knees to let me get on and 
off, if I tell him to do so. He is very affectionate, and he 
racks a mile inside of three minutes. We talk • horse ' a 
great deal here, dear father, and my letters may be like our 
talk; but any man who has kept in his stable, for months at 
a time, a famous race-horse worth $9,000, as you have kept 
Don Juan,* ought not to object to a little account of other 
people's animals. We had an offer of $500 for Custis Lee at 
Alexandria." 

" I sometimes have uninvited guests in my tent. Friday, 
Nettie saw something on the tray that Eliza was carrying. 
It had a long tail, and proved to be a stinging scorpion. The 
citizens pooh-pooh at our fear of scorpions, and insist that 
they are not so very dangerous; but I was glad to have that 
particular one killed by Armstrong planting his gun on it. 
I feel much pleased, and Armstrong is quite proud, that I 
made myself a riding-habit. You know I lost the waist of 
mine in the forest. It took me weeks to finish it, being my 
first attempt. I ripped an old waist, and copied it by draw- 
ing lines with a pencil, pinning and basting; but it fits very 
well. I remember how you both wanted me to learn when I 
was at home, and I almost wished I had, when I found it 
took me such ages to do what ought to have been short work. 

" Our letters take twenty days in coming, and longer if 



* Don Juan was a horse captured by our soldiers during the 
war, and bought, as was the custom, by the General, for tl;e ap- 
praised value of a contract horse. It was the horse that ran away 
with him at the grand review, and it afterward died in Michigan. 



A TEXAS NORTHER. I19 

there are storms in the Gulf. The papers are stale enough, 
but Armstrong goes through them all. I feel so rich, and am 
luxuriating in four splint-bottom chairs that we hired an old 
darkey to make for us. I want to sit in all four at once, it 
seems so good to get anything in which to rest that has a 
back. 

" Our dogs give us such pleasure, though it took me some 
time to get used to the din they set up when Armstrong 
practiced on the horn. They call it ' giving tongue ' here, 
but I call that too mild a word. Their whole bodies seem 
hollow, they bring forth such wild cries and cavernous howls. 
We call them Byron, Brandy, Jupiter, Rattler, Sultan, and 
Tyler." 

" Something awful is constantly occurring among the citi- 
zens. It is a lawless country. A relative of one of our old 
army officers, a prominent planter living near here, was shot 
dead in Houston by a man bearing an old grudge against 
him. It is a common occurrence to shoot down men here 
for any offense whatever. Armstrong never goes anywhere 
except for hunting, and as we have plenty of books and our 
evening rides, we enjoy life thoroughly. Nettie fell from her 
horse, and we were frightened for a time, but she was only 
lamed. Though she weighs 165 pounds, Autie* picked her 
up as if she were a baby, and carried her into their tent." 

" Besides visiting at the house of the collector of the port, 
where there is a houseful of young girls, we have been hos- 
pitably treated by some people to whom Armstrong was able 
to be of use. One day, a gentle well-bred Southern woman 
came into our tent to see Armstrong, and asked his protec- 
tion for her boy, telling him that for some childish careless- 
ness the neighboring colored people had threatened his life. 



* An abbreviation of the General's second name, Armstrong, 
given him by his elder sister's children, when they were too young 
to pronounce the full name Armstrong. 



120 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Armstrong believed her, and melted. He afterward inquired 
elsewhere into the matter, and was convinced that the boy 
had not intentionally erred. The child himself was proof, 
by his frank manner and his straightforward story, of his 
innocence. 

"I suppose we were the first Yankees these people had 
ever known, and doubtless nothing but gratitude induced 
them even to speak with us; yet they conquered prejudice, 
and asked us to dinner. They had been so well dressed 
when they called — and were accounted rich, I believe, by the 
neighbors — that I could scarcely believe we had reached the 
right house when we halted. It was like the cabins of the 
' poor white trash ' in the forest, only larger. I thought we 
had mistaken the negro quarters for the master's. Two large 
rooms, with extensions at the rear, were divided by an open 
space roofed over, under which the table was spread. The 
house was of rough logs, and unpainted. Unless the Texans 
built with home materials, their houses cost as much as 
palaces abroad, for the dressed lumber had to be hauled from 
the seacoast. 

"The inside of this queer home was in marked contrast 
with the exterior. The furniture was modern and handsome, 
and the piano, on which the accomplished mother, as well 
as her little son, gave us music, was from one of our best 
Northern manufactories. The china, glass and linen on the 
dinner-table were still another surprise. 

"They never broached politics, gave us an excellent din- 
ner, and got on Armstrong's blind side forever by giving him 
a valuable full-blooded pointer, called Ginnie, short for Vir- 
ginia. With four game chickens, a Virginia cured ham (as 
that was their former State), and two turkeys, we were sent 
on our way rejoicing." 

"Our Henry has gone home, and we miss him, for he is 
fidelity itself. He expects to move his entire family of 
negroes from Virginia to Monroe, because he says, father, 
you are the finest man he ever did see. Prepare, then, for 



A TEXAS NORTHER. 121 

the dark cloud that is moving toward you, and you may have 
the privilege of contributing to their support for a time, if he 
follows Eliza's plan of billeting the orphan upon us. 

" We have a new cook called Uncle Charley, who has here- 
tofore been a preacher, but now condescends to get up good 
dinners for us. We had eleven to dine to-day, and borrowed 
dishes of our Southern neighbors. We had a soup made out 
of an immense turtle that Armstrong killed in the stream 
yesterday. Then followed turkeys, boiled ham — and roast 
beef, of course, for Armstrong thinks no dinner quite perfect 
without his beef. We are living well, and on so little. Arm- 
strong's pay as a major-general will soon cease, and we are 
trying now to get accustomed to living on less. 

" I listen to the citizens talking over the prospects of this 
State, and I think it promises wonders. There are chances 
for money-making all the time thrown in Armstrong's way; 
but he seems to think that while he is on duty he had better 
not enter into business schemes. 

"Armstrong has such good success in hunting and fishing 
that he sends to the other officers' messes turtle, deer, duck, 
quail, squirrels, doves and prairie chickens. The possums 
are accepted with many a scrape and flourish by the ' nigs.' 
I forgot to tell you that our nine dogs sleep round our wagon 
at night, quarreling, growling, snoring, but I sleep too sound- 
ly to be kept awake by them." 

The very ants in Texas, though not poisonous, were pro- 
vided with such sharp nippers that they made me jump from 
my chair with a bound, if, after going out of sight in the neck 
or sleeves of my dress, they attempted to cut their way out. 
They clipped one's flesh with sharp little cuts that were not 
pleasant, especially when there remained a doubt as to whether 
it might be a scorpion. We had to guard our linen carefully, 
for they cut it up with ugly little slits that were hard to mend. 
Besides, we had to be careful, as we were so cut off that we 
could not well replace our few clothes, and it costs a ruinous 
sum to send North, or even to New Orleans, for anything. 
I found this out when the General paid an express bill on a 



122 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

gown from New York — ordered before we left the East — far 
larger than the cost of the material and the dressmaker's bill 
together. The ants besieged the cook-tent and set Uncle 
Charley and Eliza to growling; but an old settler told them 
to surround the place with tan-bark, and they were thus freed. 
It was all I could do to keep the General from digging down 
into the ant-mounds, as he was anxious to see into their mech- 
anism. The colored people and citizens told us what fighters 
they were, and what injuries they inflicted on people who 
molested them. We watched them curiously day by day, 
and wanted to see if the residents had told us stories about 
their stripping the trees of foliage just to guy us. (It has long 
been the favorite pastime of old residents to impose all sorts 
of improbable tales on the new-comer.) Whether this occur- 
rence happens often or not I cannot say, but it certainly took 
place once while we were there. One morning my husband 
ran into the tent and asked me to hurry up with my dressing; 
he had something strange to show me, and helped me 
scramble into my clothes. 

The carriage-road in front of our tents cut rather deep ruts, 
over which the ants found a difficult passage, so they had laid 
a causeway of bits of cut leaves, over which they journeyed 
between a tree and their ant-hills, not far from our tents on 
the other side of the road. They were still traveling back 
and forth, each bearing a bit of leaf bigger than itself; and 
a half-grown tree near us, which had been full of foliage the 
day before, was entirely bare. 

For some reason unexplainable, malarial fever broke out 
among our staff. It was, I suppose, the acclimation to which 
we were being subjected. My father Custer was ill, and came 
forth from the siege whitened out, while the officers disap- 
peared to mourn over the number of their bones for a few days, 
and then crept out of the tents as soon as they could move. 
My husband all this time had never even changed color. 
His powers of endurance amazed me. He seemed to have 
set his strong will against yielding to climatic influences; but 
after two days of this fighting he gave in and tossed himself 



A TEXAS NORTHER. 123 

on our borrowed lounge, a vanquished man. He was very 
sick. Break-bone fever had waited to do its worst with its 
last victim. Everything looked very gloomy to me. We 
had not even a wide bed, on which it is a little comfort if a 
fever-tossed patient can fling himself from side to side. We 
had no ice, no fruit, indeed nothing but quinine. The sup- 
plies of that drug to the hospital department of Texas must 
be sent by the barrel, it seemed to me, from the manner in 
which it was consumed. 

Our devoted surgeon came, of his own accord, over and 
over again, and was untiring in his patience in coming when 
I sent for him in-between-times, to please me in my anxiety. 
My husband was so racked and tormented by pain, and burnt 
up with fiery heat, that he hardly made the feeblest fight 
about the medicine, after having attained the satisfaction of 
my tasting it, to be sure that I knew how bitter it was. As 
the fever abated every hour, I resorted to new modes of brib- 
ery and corruption to get him to swallow the huge pill. My 
stepmother's cake had come in the very best time, for I ex- 
tracted the raisins and hid the quinine in them, as my father 
had done when giving me medicine as a child. It seemed to 
me an interminable time before the disease began to yield to 
the remedies. In reality, it was not long, as the General was 
unaccustomed to medicine, and its effect was more quickly 
realized on that account. Even when my husband began to 
crawl about again, the doctor continued the medicine, and I 
as nurse remorselessly carried out his directions, though I 
had by no means a tractable patient, as with returning health 
came restored combative powers. My husband noticed the 
rapid disappearance of the pills from the table when he lay 
and watched the hated things with relief, as he discovered 
that he was being aided in the consumption by some unknown 
friend. One morning we found the plate on which the doc- 
tor had placed thirty the night before, empty. Of course I 
accused the General of being the cause of the strange disap- 
pearance, and prepared to send for more, inexorable in my 
temporary reign over a weak man. He attempted a mild 



124 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

kicking celebration and clapping accompaniment over the 
departure of his hated medicine, as much as his rather un- 
steady feet and arms would allow, but stoutly denied having 
done away with the offending pills. The next night we kept 
watch over the fresh supply, and soon after dark the ants be- 
gan their migrations up the loose tent-wall on the table-cover 
that fell against the canvas, and while one grasped the flour- 
mixed pill with his long nippers, the partner pushed, steered 
and helped roll the plunder down the side of the tent on to 
the ground. 

The triumph of the citizens was complete. Their tales 
were outdone by our actual experience. After that there was 
no story they told us which we did not take in immediately 
without question. 

The hunting included alligators also. In the stream be- 
low us there were occasional deep pools, darkened by the 
overhanging trees. As we women walked on the banks, we 
kept a respectful distance from the places where the bend in 
the creek widened into a pond, with still water near the high 
banks. In one of these dark pools lived an ancient alligator, 
well known to the neighbors, on which they had been unsuc- 
cessfully firing for years. The darkeys kept aloof from his 
fastness, and even Eliza, whose Monday-morning soul longed 
for the running water of the stream, for she had struggled 
with muddy water so long, trembled at the tales of this mon- 
ster. She reminds me now "what a lovely place to wash 
that Gros wash-house was, down by the creek. But it was 
near the old alligator's pool, and I know I hurried up my 
wash awfully, for I was afraid he might come up; foryou know, 
Miss Libbie, it was reckoned that they was mighty fond of 
children and colored people." 

One of the young officers was determined to get this vete- 
ran, and day after day went up and down the creek, coming 
home at night to meet the jeers of the others, who did not 
believe that alligator-hunting in a hot country paid. One 
night he stopped at our tent, radiant and jubilant. He had 
shot the old disturber of the peace, the intimidator of the 



A TEXAS NORTHER. 



125 



neighborhood, and was going for help to haul him up to the 
tents. He was a monster, and it cost the men tough pulling 
to get him up the bank, and then to drag him down near our 
tent. There he was left for us women to see. We walked 
around and around him, very brave, and quite relieved to 
think that we were rid of so dangerous a neighbor, with a 
real old Jonah-and-the-whale mouth. The General congratu- 
lated the young officer heartily, and wished it had been his 
successful shot that had ended him. Part of the jaw had 




MEASURING AN ALLIGATOR. 



been shot away, evidently years ago, as it was then calloused 
over. It was distended to its utmost capacity, and propped 
open with a stick. Nettie brought out a broom from her 
tent, with which to get a rough estimate of his length, as we 
knew well that if we did not give some idea of his size in our 
letters home, they would think the climate, which enervates 
so quickly, had produced a total collapse in our power to tell 
the truth. The broom did not begin to answer, so we pieced 
out the measure with something else, in order to arrive at 
some kind of accuracy. Then we thought we would like to 
see how the beast looked with his mouth closed, and the of- 



126 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ficers, patient in humoring our whims, pulled out the props. 
There was a sudden commotion. The next thing visible was 
three sets of flying petticoats making for the tent, as the 
alligator, revived by the sudden let-down of his upper jaw, 
sprawled out his feet and began to walk over the grass. The 
crack of the rifle a moment after brought the heads of three 
cowards from their tents, but after that no woman hovered 
over even his dead hide. The General was convulsed over 
our retreat. The drying skin of his majesty, the lord of the 
pool, flung and flapped in the wind, suspended to the pole of 
the officers' arbor for weeks, and it was well tanned by the 
air long before they ceased to make sly allusions to women's 
curiosity. 

At last, in November, the sealed proposals from citizens to 
the quartermaster for the contract for transporting the camp 
equipage and baggage, forage, etc., over the country, were 
all in, and the most reasonable of the propositions was ac- 
cepted. Orders had come to move on to Austin, the capital, 
where we were to winter. It was with real regret that I saw 
our traps packed, the tents of our pretty encampment taken 
down, the arbors thrown over, and our faces turned toward 
the interior of the State. The General, too buoyant not to 
think that every move would better us, felt nothing but pleas- 
ure to be on the march again. The journey was very pleas- 
ant through the day, and we were not compelled to rise be- 
fore dawn, for the sun was by no means unbearable, as it had 
been in August. It was cold at night, and the wind blew 
around the wagon, flapping the curtains, under which it 
penetrated, and lifting the covers unless they were strongly 
secured. As to trying to keep warm by a camp-fire in No- 
vember, I rather incline to the belief that it is impossible. 
Instead of heat coming into the tent where I put on my habit 
with benumbed fingers, the wind blew the smoke in. Some- 
times the mornings were so cold I begged to be left in bed, 
and argued that the mules could be attached and I could go 
straight on to camp, warm all the way. But my husband 
woke my drowsy pride by saying "the officers will surely 



A TEXAS NORTHER. \2J 

think you a 'feather-bed soldier,' " which term of derision 
was applied to a man who sought soft places for duty and 
avoided hardships, driving when he ought to ride. 

If we all huddled around one of my husband's splendid 
camp-fires, I came in for the smoke. The officers' pretty lit- 
tle gallantries about "smoke always following beauty," did 
not keep my eyes from being blistered and blinded. It was, 
after all, not a very great hardship, as during the day we had 
the royal sun of that Southern winter. 

My husband rode on in advance every day to select a camp. 
He gave the choice into my hands sometimes, but it was 
hard to keep wood, water and suitable ground uppermost ; I 
wanted always the sheltered, pretty spots. We enjoyed every 
mile of our march. It rained sometimes, pouring down so 
suddenly that a retreat to the traveling wagons was impos- 
sible. One day I was wet to the skin three times, and my 
husband wondered what the anxious father and mother, who 
used frantically to call " rubbers " after me, as a girl, when I 
tried to slip out unnoticed, would say to him then ; but it 
did not hurt me in the least. The General actually seemed 
unconscious of the shower. He wore a soldier's overcoat, 
pulled his broad hat down to shed the rain, and encouraged 
me by saying I was getting to be a tough veteran, which 
among us was very high praise. Indeed, we were all then so 
well, we snapped our fingers at the once-dreaded break-bone 
fever. If we broke the ice in the bucket for our early ablu- 
tions, it became a matter to joke over when the sun was up 
and we all rode together, laughing and singing, at the head 
of the column. 

Our march was usually twenty-five miles, sometimes thirty, 
in a day. The General and I foraged at the farms we passed, 
and bought good butter, eggs and poultry. He began to 
collect turkeys for the winter, until we had enough for a 
year. Uncle Charley was doing his best to awe Eliza with 
his numerous new dishes. Though he was a preacher, 
he put on that profession on Sundays as he did his best 
coat ; and if during the week the fire smoked, or a dog 



128 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

stole some prepared dish that was standing one side to 
cool, he expressed himself in tones not loud but deep, and 
had as extensive a collection of negro oaths as Texas afforded, 
which, I believe, is saying a good deal. My husband, ob- 
servant as he always was, wondered what possessed the old 
fellow when preparing poultry for dinner. We used slyly to 
watch him go one side, seize the chicken, and, while swiftly 
wringing its neck, mumble some unintelligible words to him- 
self, then throw down the fowl in a matter-of-fact way, and 
sit down to pluck it. We were mystified, and had to get 
Eliza to explain this peculiar proceeding that went on day 
after day. She said that " though Uncle Charley does swear 
so powerful, he has a kind of superstition that poultry has a 
hereafter." Evidently he thought it was not right to send 
them to their last home without what he intended for a fu- 
neral oration. Sometimes he said, as fast as his nimble old 
tongue could clatter : 

" Hark, from the tombs a doleful sound, 
Mine ears attend the cry ! 
Ye living hens, come view the ground 
Where you must shortly die." 

Once after this my husband, by hiding, contrived to be 
present, though unseen, at one of these funeral ceremonies : 

" Princes, this clay must be your bed, 
In spite of all your towers, 
The tall, the wise, the reverend head, 
Must lie as low as yours." 

He so timed his verses that with one wrench he gave the 
final turn to the poor chicken's head as he jerked out the 
last line. My husband, perfectly convulsed himself, was in 
terror for fear Uncle Charley would have his feelings hurt by 
seeing us, and hearing my giggling, and I nearly smothered 
myself in the attempt to get back to our tent, where the 
General threw himself down with shrieks of laughter. 

We varied our march by many an exciting race after jack- 



A TEXAS NORTHER. 



I29 



rabbits. The chapparral bushes defeated us frequently by 
making such good hiding-places for the hare.* If we came 
to a long stretch of open prairie, and a rabbit lifted his doe- 
like head above the grass, the General uttered a wild whoop 
to his dog, a " Come on ! " to me, and off we dashed. Some 
of the staff occasionally joined, while our father Custer bent 
over his old roan horse, mildly struck him with a spur, and 
was in at the death. The ground was excellent for a run- 
level and grassy. We had a superb greyhound called Byron, 
that was devoted to the General, and after a successful chase 
it was rewarded with many a demonstration of affection. He 
was the most lordly dog, I think, I ever saw— powerful, with 
deep chest, and carrying his head in a royal way. When he 
started for a run, with his nostrils distended and his delicate 
ears laid back on his noble head, each bound sent him flying 
through the air. He hardly touched the elastic cushions of 
his feet to earth, before he again was spread out like a dark, 
straight thread. This gathering and leaping must be seen,' 
to realize how marvelous is the rapidity and how the motion 
seems flying, almost, as the ground is scorned except at a 
sort of spring bound. He trotted back to the General, if he 
happened to be in advance, with the rabbit in his mouth, 
and, holding back his proud head, delivered the game only 
to his chief. The tribute that a woman pays to beauty in 
any form, I gave to Byron, but I never cared much for him. 
A greyhound's heart could be put into a thimble. Byron 
cared for the General as much as his cold soul could for any 
one, but it was not to be compared with the dear Ginnie : 
she was all love, she was almost human. 

The dog was in an injured state with me much of the time. 
In quarters he resented all my rights. My husband had a 
great fashion of flinging himself on the bed, or even on the 
floor, if it was carpeted. He told me he believed he must 

* I never liked hunting when the game was killed, and I was 
relieved to find how often the hare rabbit escaped into the 
thickets. 



130 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

unconsciously have acquired the habit at West Point, where 
the zeal of the cadet seems divided between his studies and 
an effort to keep the wrinkles out of the regulation white 
pantaloons, which, being of duck, are easily creased. What 
punishment Government sees fit to inflict for each separate 
crease, I don't know, but certainly its embryo soldiers have 
implanted in them a fear of consequences, even regarding 
rumpled linen. As soon as the General tossed himself on 
the bed, Byron walked to him and was invited to share the 
luxury. " Certainly," my husband used to say, sarcastically ; 
"walk right up here on this clean white spread, without 
troubling yourself to care whether your feet are covered with 
mud or not. Your Aunt Eliza wants you to lie on nice white 
counterpanes ; she washes them on purpose for you." By- 
ron answered this invitation by licking his host's hand, and 
turning in the most scornful manner on me, as I uttered a 
mild protest regarding his muddy paws. The General quickly 
remarked that I made invidious distinctions, as no spread 
seemed too fine or white for Ginnie, in my mind, while if 
Eliza happened to enter, a pair of blazing eyes and an ener- 
getically expressed opinion of Byron ensued, and he retorted 
by lifting his upper lip over some of the whitest fangs I ever 
saw. The General, still aiding and abetting, asked the dog 
to let Aunt Eliza see what an intelligent, knowing animal he 
was — how soon he distinguished his friends from his foes. 
Such an exasperating brute, and such a tormenting master, 
were best left alone. But I was tired, and wanted to lie down, 
so 1 told Eliza that if she would stand there, I would try the 
broom, a woman's weapon, on his royal highness. Byron 
wouldn't move, and growled even at me. Then I quite 
meekly took what little place was left, the General's sense of 
mischief, and his peculiar fondness for not interfering in a 
fight, now coming in to keep him silent. The dog rolled 
over, and shammed sleep, but soon planting his feet against 
my back, which was turned in high dudgeon, he pushed and 
pushed, seemingly without premeditation, his dreadful eyes 
shut, until I was nearly shoved off. I was conquered, and 



A TEXAS NORTHER. 131 

rose, afraid of the dog and momentarily irritated at my de- 
feat and his tyranny, while Eliza read a lesson to the Gen- 
eral. She said, "Now see what you've done. You keer 
more for that pesky, sassy old hound than you does for Miss 
Libbie. Ginnel, I'd be 'shamed, if I was you. What would 
your mother Custer think of you now ? " But my feelings 
were not seriously hurt, and the General, having watched to 
the last to see how far the brute would carry his jealousy, 
gave him a kick that sent him sprawling on the floor, spring- 
ing up to restore me to my place and close the colored ha- 
rangue that was going on at the foot of the bed. Eliza 
rarely dignified me with the honor of being referee in any 
disputed question. She used to say, "No matter whether 
it's right or wrong, Miss Libbie's sho' to side with the Gin- 
nel." Her droll way of treating him like a big boy away 
from home for the first time, always amused him. She threat- 
ened to tell his mother, and brought up that sainted woman 
in all our encounters, as she did in the dog episode just men- 
tioned, as if the very name would restore order at once, and 
give Eliza her own way in regulating us. But dear mother 
Custer had been in the midst of too many happy scuffles, and 
the centre of too many friendly fisticuffs among her active, 
irrepressible boys, in the old farm-days, for the mention of 
her name to restore order in our turbulent household. 



CHAPTER VII. 



LIFE IN A TEXAS TOWN. 



One day we heard shout upon shout from many a soldier's 
throat in camp. The headquarters guard and officers' ser- 
vants, even the officers themselves, joined in the hallooing, 
and we ran out to see what could be the matter. It was our 
lordly Byron. Stately and superb as he usually was, he had 
another side to his character, and now he was racing up 
from camp, a huge piece of meat in his jaws, which he had 
stolen from the camp-kettle where it was boiling for the sol- 
diers' dinner. His retreat was accompanied with every sort 
of missile — sticks, boots and rocks — but this dog, that made 
himself into a "greased streak of lightning," as a colored 
woman described him, bounded on, untouched by the flying 
hail of the soldiers' wrath. The General did not dare to 
shout and dance in sight of the men, over what he thought 
so cunning in this hateful dog, as he was not protected by 
the friendly walls of our tent ; but he chuckled, and his 
eyes danced, for the brute dropped the hot meat when 
he had looked about to discover how close his pursuers 
were, and then, seeing the enemy nearing him, picked it 
up and distanced them all. The General went back to his 
tent, and called Eliza, to torment her with an account of 
what " her favorite " had done all by himself. She spared 
no words to express her opinion of the hated hound, for By- 
ron was no respecter of persons when the sly side of his 
character was uppermost. He stole his master's dinner just 
as readily as the neighbors'. Eliza said no one could tell 
how many times he had made off with a part of her dinner, 
just dished up to be served, and then gone off on a prowl, 



LIFE IN A TEXAS TOWN. 133 

" after he'd gorged hissel," as she expressed it, " hid in' from 
the other dogs, and burying it in jest such a stingy way you 
might 'spect from such a worthless, plunderin' old villain." 

The march to Austin was varied by fording. All the 
streams and rivers were crossed in that manner, except one, 
where we used the pontoon bridge. The Colorado we found 
too high to ford, and so made a detour of some miles. The 
citizens were not unfriendly, while there was a total cessation 
of work on the part of the negroes until our column went 
by. They sat on the fences like a row of black crows, and 
with their usual politeness made an attempt to answer ques- 
tions the troops put to them, which were unanswerable, even 
in the ingenious brain of the propounder. "Well, uncle, 
how far is it ten miles down the road from here? " If their 
feelings were hurt by such irrepressible fun, they were soon 
healed by the lively trade they kept up in chickens, eggs and 
butter. 

The citizens sometimes answered the General's salute, and 
his interested questions about the horse they rode, by joining 
us for a short distance on the march. The horseflesh of 
Texas was a delight to him; but I could not be so interested 
in the fine points as to forget the disfiguring brands that 
were often upon the foreshoulder, as well as the flank. 
They spoke volumes for the country where a man has to 
sear a thoroughbred with a hot iron, to ensure his keeping 
possession. Father Custer used to say, " What sort of coun- 
try is this, anyhow, when a man, in order to keep his proper- 
ty, has got to print the whole constitution of the United 
States on his horse? " The whole get-up of the Texans was 
rather cumbersome, it seemed to me, though they rode per- 
fectly. They frequently had a Mexican saddle, heavily orna- 
mented with silver on the high pommel, and everywhere else 
that it could be added. Even the design of the stamped 
leather, for which Mexico is famous, was embroidered with 
silver bullion. The stirrup had handsome leather covers, 
while a fringe of thongs fell almost to the ground, to aid in 
pushing their way through the tall prairie grass. Sometimes 



134 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

the saddle-cloth, extending to the crupper, was of fur. The 
bridle and bit were rich with silver also. On the massive sil- 
ver pommel hung an incongruous coil of horse-hair rope, 
disfiguring and ugly. There was an iron picket-pin attached 
to the lariat, which we soon learned was of inestimable value 
in the long rides that the Texans took. If a man made a 
halt, he encircled himself with this prickly lariat and lay 
down securely, knowing that no snake could cross that bar- 
rier. In a land of venomous serpents, it behooved a man to 
carry his own abatis everywhere. The saddle was also secur- 
ed by a cinch or girth of cow's-hair, which hard riders found 
a great help in keeping the saddle firm. The Texan himself, 
though not often wearing the high-crowned, silver-embroid- 
ered Mexican sombrero, wore usually a wide-brimmed felt 
hat, on which the General afterward doted, as the felt was 
of superior quality. If the term " dude " had been invented 
then, it would often have applied to a Texan horseman. 
The hair was frequently long, and they wore no waistcoat, 
I concluded because they could better display the vast ex- 
panse of shirt-front. While the General and his casual com- 
panion in our march talked horse, too absorbed to notice 
anything else, I used to lose myself in the contemplation of 
the maze of tucks, puffs and embroidery of this cambric fin- 
ery, ornamented with three old-fashioned bosom-pins. The 
wearer seemed to me to represent two epochs: the fine linen, 
side-saddle and blooded horse belonged to " befo' the war; " 
while the ragged elbows of the coat-sleeves, and the worn 
boots, were decidedly "since the war." If the shirt-front 
was intricate in its workmanship, the boots were ignored by 
the placid owner. 

They usually had the Mexican serape strapped to the back 
of the saddle, or, if it was cold, as it was in our late Novem- 
ber march, they put their head through the opening in the 
middle, so woven for that purpose, and flung the end across 
their breast and over one shoulder in a picturesque manner. 
The bright hues of the blanket, dyed by the Indians from the 
juice of the prickly pear, its soft, flexible folds having been 



LIFE IN A TEXAS TOWN. 135 

woven in a hand-loom, made a graceful and attractive bit of 
color, which was not at all out of place in that country. 
These blankets were valuable possessions. They were so 
pliable and perfectly water-proof, that they protected one 
from every storm. We had a pair, which we used through 
every subsequent campaign, and when the cold in Kansas 
and Dakota became almost unbearable, sometimes, after the 
long trial of a journey in the wagon, my husband used to 
say, " We will resort to extreme measures, Libbie, and wrap 
you in the Mexican blankets." They were the warmest of 
all our wraps. Nothing seemed to fade them, and even when 
burnt with Tom's cigarette ashes, or stuck through with the 
General's spurs, they did not ravel, as do other fabrics. They 
have hung as portieres in my little home, and the design and 
coloring are so like the Persian rug on the floor, that it seems 
to be an argument to prove that Mr. Ignatius Donnelly, in 
his theory of Atlantis, is right, and that we once had a land 
highway between the East and Mexico, and that the reason 
the Aztec now uses the designs on his pottery and in his 
weaving is, that his ancestors brought over the first sketches 
on papyrus.* 

A Texan travels for comfort and safety rather than for 
style. If a norther overtakes him, he dismounts and drives 
the picket-pin into the ground, thus tethering his horse, 
which turns his back, the better to withstand the oncoming 
wind. The master throws himself, face down, in the long 



* In a town of Mexico last year I saw these small looms with 
blankets in them, in various stages of progress, in many cottages. 
Among the Indians the rude loom is carried about in the moun- 
tain villages, and with some tribes there is a superstition about 
finishing the blankets in the same place where they were begun. 
A squaw will sometimes have one half done, and if an order is 
given her she will not break over her rule to finish it if a move is 
made in the midst of her work. She waits until the next year, 
when her people return to the same camp, as is the custom when 
the Indian seeks certain game or grazing, or to cut longer poles. 



136 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

grass, buried in his blanket, and thus awaits the termination 
of the fury with which the storm sweeps a Texas prairie. 

Sometimes one of the planters, after riding a distance with 
us, talking the county over, and taking in every point of our 
horses as he rode, made his adieus and said he was now at 
his own place, where he turned in. The General followed 
his fine thoroughbred with longing eyes, and was more than 
astonished to find in what stables they kept these valuable 
and delicate animals. No matter if the house was habit- 
able, the stable was usually in a state of careless dilapidation. 
Doors swung on one hinge, and clapboards were torn off 
here and there, while the warped roof was far from weather- 
proof. Even though Texas is in the "Sunny South," the 
first sharp norther awakens one to the knowledge that it is not 
always summer. Sometimes these storms are quickly over, 
but frequently they last three days. This carelessness about 
stabling stock was not owing to the depredations Of an invad- 
ing army. We were the first " Yankees " they had seen. It 
was the general shiftlessness that creeps into one's veins. 
We were not long there ourselves before climatic influence 
had its effect on even the most active among us. 

Before we reached Austin, several citizens sent out invita- 
tions for us to come to their houses; but I knew the General 
would not accept, and, cold as the nights were, I felt unwill- 
ing to lose a day of camp life. We pitched our tents on 
rolling ground in the vicinity of Austin, where we overlooked 
a pretty town of stuccoed houses that appeared summery in 
the midst of the live-oak's perennial green. The State 
House, Land Office, and governor's mansion looked regal to us 
so long bivouacking in the forest and on uncultivated prairies. 
The governor offered for our headquarters the Blind Asylum, 
which had been closed during the war. This possessed one 
advantage that we were glad to improve: there was room 
enough for all the staff, and a long saloon parlor and dining- 
room for our hops during the winter. By this time two pret- 
ty, agreeable women, wives of staff-officers, were added to our 
circle. Still, I went into the building with regret. The 



LIFE IN A TEXAS TOWN. 1 37 

wagon in which the wind had rocked me to sleep so often, 
and which had proved such a stronghold against the crawling 
foes of the country, was consigned to the stable with a sigh. 
Camp life had more pleasures than hardships. 

There were three windows in our room, which we opened 
at night; but, notwithstanding the air that circulated, the 
feeling, after having been so long out of doors, was suffocat- 
ing. The ceiling seemed descending to smother us. There 
was one joy — reveille could ring out on the dawning day and 
there was no longer imperative necessity to spring from a 
warm bed and make ablutions in ice-water. There is a good 
deal of that sort of mental snapping of the fingers on the 
part of campaigners when they are again stationary and need 
not prepare for a march. Civilization and a looking-glass 
must now be assumed, as it would no longer do to rough it 
and ignore appearances, after we had moved into a house, 
and were to live like " folks." Besides, we soon began to be 
invited by the townspeople to visit them. Refined, agreeable 
and well-dressed women came to see us, and, womanlike, 
we ran our eyes over their dresses. They were embroidered 
and trimmed richly with lace — " befo' the war " finery or from 
the cargo of a blockade runner; but it was all strange enough 
in such an isolated State. Almost everything was then 
brought from the terminus of the Brenham Railroad to Aus- 
tin, 150 miles, by ox-team. We had been anxionsly expect- 
ed for some time, and there was no manner of doubt that 
the arrival of the Division was a great relief to the reputable 
of both sides. They said so frankly — the returned Confed- 
erate officers and the " stay-at-home rangers," as well as the 
newly appointed Union governor. 

Texas was then a "go-as-you-please" State, and the law- 
lessness was terrible. The returned Confederate soldiers 
were poor, and did not know how to set themselves to work, 
and in many instances preferred the life of a freebooter. It 
was so easy, if a crime was committed, to slip into Mexico, 
for though it was inaccessible except by stage or on horse- 
back, a Texan would not mind a forced march over the 



I38 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

country to the Rio Grande. There were then but one or two 
short railroads in operation. The one from Galveston to 
Brenham was the principal one, while telegraph lines were 
not in use. The stage to Brenham was our one means of 
communication with the outside world. 

It was hard for the citizens who had remained at home to 
realize that war was over, and some were unwilling to believe 
there ever had been an emancipation proclamation. In the 
northern part of the State they were still buying and selling 
slaves. The lives of the newly appointed United States of- 
ficers were threatened daily, and it was an uneasy head that 
wore the gubernatorial crown. I thought them braver men 
than many who had faced the enemy in battle. The unseen, 
lurking foe that hides under cover of darkness was their ter- 
ror. They held themselves valiantly; but one wife and 
daughter were on my mind night after night, as from dark 
till dawn they slept uneasily, and started from their rooms out 
into the halls at every strange sound. The General and 1 
thought the courageous daughter had enough brave, devot- 
ed blood in her veins to distill a portion into the heart of 
many a soldier who led a forlorn hope. They told us that 
in the early part of the war the girl had known of a Union 
flag in the State House, held in derision and scornfully 
treated by the extremists. She and her younger brother 
climbed upon the roof of a wing of the building, after dark, 
entered a window of the Capitol, found the flag, concealed it 
in the girl's clothing, and made their perilous descent safely. 
The father of such a daughter might well prize her watchful- 
ness of his safety, as she vigilantly kept it up during our stay, 
and was equal to a squadron of soldiers. She won our ad- 
miration; and our bachelor officers paid the tribute that 
brave men always pay to courageous, unselfish women, for 
she danced, rode and walked with them, and when she was 
not so engaged, their orderlies held their horses before the 
official door, while they improved every hour allowed them 
within the hospitable portal. 

It was a great relief to find a Southern State that was not 



LIFE IN A TEXAS TOWN. 1 39 

devastated by the war. The homes destroyed in Virginia 
could not fail to move a woman's heart, as it was women and 
children that suffered from such destruction. In Texas 
nothing seemed to have been altered. I suppose some profit- 
ed, for blockade-running could be carried on from the ports 
of that great State, and there was always Mexico from which 
to draw supplies. 

In our daily rides we found the country about Austin de- 
lightful. The roads were smooth and the surface rolling. 
Indeed, there was one high hill, called Mount Brunnel, 
where we had picnics and enjoyed the fine view, far and 
near, taking one of the bands of the regular regiments from 
the North that joined us soon after our arrival. Mount 
Brunnel was so steep we had to dismount and climb a part 
of the distance. The band played the " Anvil Chorus," and 
the sound descended through the valley grandly. The river, 
filled with sand-bars and ugly on close examination, looked 
like a silver ribbon. At that height, the ripened cotton, at 
certain seasons of the year, looked like fields of foam. The 
thermometer was over eighty before we left, the lowlands; 
but at the altitude to which we climbed the air was cool. 
We even went once to the State Insane Asylum, taking the 
band, when the attendants asked if dance music might be 
played, and we watched with wonder the quadrille of an in- 
sane eight. 

The favorite ride for my husband was across the Colorado 
to the Deaf and Dumb Asylum. There seemed to be a fas- 
cination for him in the children, who were equally charmed 
with the young soldier that silently watched their pretty, pa- 
thetic exhibitions of intelligent speech by gesture. My hus- 
band riveted his gaze on their speaking eyes, and as their 
instructor spelt the passions of love, hatred, remorse and 
reverence on his fingers, one little girl represented them by 
singularly graceful gestures, charming him, and filling his 
eyes with tears, which he did not seek to hide. The pupils 
were from ten to sixteen years of age. Their supple wrists 
were a delight to us, and the tiny hands of a child of the 



I4O TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

matron, whom the General held, talked in a cunning way to 
its playmates, who, it knew, could not comprehend its speech. 
It was well that the Professor was hospitality itself, and did 
not" mind a cavalcade dashing up the road to his house. My 
husband, when he did not openly suggest going, used some 
subterfuge as trivial as going for water -cress, that grew in a 
pond near the Asylum. The children knew him, and wel- 
comed him with lustrous, eloquent eyes, and went untiringly 
through their little exhibitions, learning to bring him their 
compositions, examples and maps, for his commendation. 
How little we thought then that the lessons he was taking, 
in order to talk with the children he learned to love, would 
soon come into use while sitting round a camp-fire and mak- 
ing himself understood by Indians. Of course, their sign- 
language is wholly their own, but it is the same method of 
using the simplest signs as expressive of thought. It was a 
long, pleasant ride; its only drawback to me being the ford- 
ing of the river, which had quicksands and a rapid current. 
The Colorado was low, but the river-bed was wide and filled 
with sand-bars. The mad torrent that the citizens told us 
of in freshets, we did not see. If I followed my husband, 
as Custis Lee had learned to do, I found myself guided safe- 
ly, but it sometimes happened that our party entered the 
river, laughing and talking so earnestly, noisily and excited- 
ly that we forgot caution. One lesson was enough; the 
sensation of the sinking of the horse's hindlegs in quick- 
sands is not to be forgotten. The loud cry of the General 
to " saw on the bit " or whip my horse, excited, frightened 
directions from the staff to turn to the right or the left, Cus- 
tis Lee trembling and snorting with fear, but responding to 
a sharp cut of my whip (for I rarely struck him), and we 
plunged on to a firmer soil, wiser for all the future on account 
of that moment of serious peril. 

We seldom rode through the town, as my husband dis- 
liked the publicity that a group of cavalrymen must necessa- 
rily cause in a city street. If we were compelled to, the staff 
and Tom pointed out one after another of the loungers about 



LIFE IN A TEXAS TOWN. 141 

the stores, or the horseman, who had killed his man. It 
seemed to be thought the necessary thing, to establish the 
Texan's idea of courage, to have either fought in duels, or, 
by waylaying the enemy, to have killed from one to five men! 
The Southern climate seems to keep alive a feud that our 
cold Northern winters freeze out. Bad blood was never kept 
in abeyance; they had out their bursts of temper when the 
attack of rage came on. Each man, even the boys of twelve, 
went armed. I used to wonder at the humped-up coats, until 
a norther, before which we were one day scudding for safety, 
lifted the coats of men making a similar dash, and the pistol 
was revealed. 

It was the favorite pastime of our men (having concocted 
the scheme with the General) to ride near some of the out- 
skirts, and, when we reached some lone tree, tell me that 
from that limb a murdered man had lately swung. This 
grim joke was often practiced on me, in order that the shud- 
dering horror and the start Custis Lee and I made, to skim 
over the country away from such a hated spot, might be en- 
joyed. I came to think the Texas trees bore that human 
fruit a little too often for truth; but some of the citizens 
gloated over these scenes of horror, and added a lamp-post 
in town to the list of localities from which, in future, I must 
turn away my head. 

The negroes in Texas and Louisiana were the worst in all 
the South. The border States had commonly sold their 
most insubordinate slaves into these two distant States.* For- 

* In order to gain some idea of the immense territory in which 
our troops were attempting to restore order, I have only to re- 
mind the reader that Texas is larger than either the German or 
the Austrian Empire. The area of the State is 274,356 square 
miles. It is as large as France, Belgium, England and Wales all 
combined. If we could place the northwestern corner of Texas 
at Chicago, its most southerly point would be at Jacksonville, 
Fla. , its most easterly at Petersburg, Va., and its most westerly 
in the interior of Missouri. It would thus cover the entire States 



142 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

tunately, our now well-disciplined Division and the regular 
cavalry kept everything in a better condition; but there were 
constantly individual cases of outrageous conduct, and often 
of crime, among whites and blacks, high and |k>w. Texas 
had so long been looked upon as a sort of "city of refuge " 
by outlaws, that those whom the other States refused to har- 
bor came to that locality. A country reached only by sea 
from the south or by a wagon-train from the north, and 
through which no telegraph lines ran until after we came, 
would certainly offer an admirable hiding-place for those who 
leave their country for their country's good. I have read 
somewhere that Texas derived its name from a group of ras- 
cals, who, sitting around a fire on their arrival on the soil 
that was to protect them, composed this couplet: 
" If every other land forsakes us, 

This is the land that freely takes us (Texas)." 

As story after story reached us, I began to think the State 
was well named. There were a great many excellent, law- 
abiding citizens, but not enough to leaven the lump at that 
chaotic period. Even the women learned to defend them- 
selves, as the war had deprived them of their natural pro- 
tectors, who had gone either in the Northern or Southern 
army — for Texas had a cavalry regiment of refugees in our 
service. One woman, while we were there, found a team- 
ster getting into her window, and shot him fatally. Fire- 
arms were so constantly about — for the men did not dress 
without a pistol in their belts — that women grew accustomed 
to the sight of weapons. There was a woman of whom I 
constantly heard, rich and refined, but living out of town on 
a plantation that seemed to be fit only for negroes. She 



of Indiana, Kentucky and the two Carolinas, and nearly all of 
Tennessee, with one-third of Ohio, two-thirds of Virginia, half of 
Georgia, and portions of Florida, Alabama, Illinois and Missouri. 
The cities of Chicago, Toledo, Cincinnati, Washington, Richmond, 
Charleston, Atlanta and Nashville would all be included within 
its borders. 



LIFE IN A TEXAS TOWN. 143 

rode fearlessly, and diverted her monotonous life by hunting. 
The planters frequently met her with game slung upon her 
saddle, and once she lassoed and brought in a wolf alone. 
Finally, this woman came to see me, but curiosity made me 
hardly civil for a few moments, as I was trying to reconcile 
myself to the knowledge that the quiet, graceful person be- 
fore me, with rich dress, jewels and a French hat, could take 
her gun and dogs, mount a fiery horse, and go hunting alone. 
We found, on returning the visit, that, though they were 
rich, owning blooded horses, a plantation and a mill, their 
domicile was anything but what we at the North would call 
comfortable. It was a long, one-storied, log building, con- 
sisting of a parlor, dining-room, bedroom and two small 
" no-'count" rooms, as the servants said, all opening into 
one another and upon the porch. The first surprise on en- 
tering was, that the roof did not fit down snugly on the side 
wall. A strip of the blue sky was visible on three sides, 
while the partition of the dining-room only came up part 
way. There seemed to be no sort of provision for " Caudle 
lectures." The walls were roughly plastered, but this space 
just under the roof was for ventilation, and I fancied they 
would get enough of it during a norther. 

I am reminded of a story that one of the witty Southern 
women told me, after repeating some very good comic verses, 
in which they excel. She said the house I described was not 
uncommon in Texas, and that once she was traveling over a 
portion of the State, on a journey of great suffering, as she 
was accompanying her husband's remains to a family burial- 
ground. They assisted her from her carriage into one of the 
rooms of a long log house, used as a wayside inn, and the 
landlady kindly helped her into bed, as she was prostrated 
with suffering and fatigue. After she left her, the landlady 
seemed to forget that the partition did not extend to the 
rafters, and began questioning her servant as to what was 
the matter, etc. Hearing that the lady had lost her husband, 
the old dame exclaimed, sympathetically, "Poor thing! 
Poor thing ! I know how it is; I've lost three of em." 



144 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

The General and his staff got a good deal of sport out of 
the manner in which they exaggerated the tales of blood- 
shed to me, and aroused the anger, grief and horror that I 
could not suppress. I must defend myself from the supposi- 
tion that I may have been chronicling their absurd and 
highly colored tales. All that I have written I have either 
seen or have reliable authority for. Their astounding stories, 
composed among themselves, began with a concocted plan 
by which one casually started a story, the others met it with 
surprise, and with an "Is it possible ? " and the next led up 
to some improbable narrative of the General's — I growing 
more and more shivery as the wicked tormentors advanced. 
Always rather gullible, I suppose, I must confess the torn 
and distracted state of society in Texas made everything they 
said seem probable. I don't know how long I kept up a 
fashion of starting and shuddering over the frequent crack 
of a rifle or pistol, as we rode through the woods about the 
town. My husband and his attendant scamps did all they 
could to confirm my belief that the woods were full of assas- 
sins, and I rode on after these sharp reports, expecting to 
come upon the lifeless remains of a murdered man. They 
all said, with well-assumed feeling, that Texas was an awful 
country in which to live, where a man's life was not safe an 
hour, and excitedly exclaimed at each shot, " There goes 
some other poor fellow ! " I have reason to believe it was a 
serious disappointment to the whole confederation of jokers, 
to have me actually see a Mexican driver (a greaser) crack his 
whip over the heads of his oxen, as they crawled along in 
front of us one day when we were riding. There is no sound 
like the snap of the lash of a "bull-whacker," as they are 
called, and perhaps brighter women than I am might have 
been taken in by it, and thought it a pistol-shot. This ended 
my taking it as the signal of a death. 

The lawlessness of the State was much diminished by 
the troops scattered through the country. General Custer 
was much occupied in answering communications that came 
from distant parts of Texas, describing the demoralized state 



LIFE IN A TEXAS TOWN. 



145 



of the country, and asking for troops. These appeals were 
from all sides. It was felt more and more that the presence 
of the troops was absolutely necessary, and it was certainly 
agreeable to us that we were not looked upon as invaders. 
The General then had thirteen regiments of infantry and as 
many of cavalry, scattered in every part of the State com- 
prised in his district. The regular troops arriving brought 
their wives and daughters, and it was a great addition, as we 
had constant entertainments, in which the civilians, so long 
cut off from all gayety, were glad to participate. The staff 
assisted me greatly in my preparations. We dressed the long 
parlors in evergreens, made canopies of flags, arranged wax- 
lights in impromptu wooden sconces, and with the waxed 
floor it was tempting enough to those who cared for dancing. 
The soldiers soon organized a string band, and a sergeant 
called off the quadrilles. Sometimes my husband planned 
and arranged the suppers alone, but usually the staff divided 
the duty of preparing the refreshments. Occasionally we 
attempted a dinner, and, as we wanted to invite our own 
ladies as well as some from the regular regiments, the table 
was a subject of study; for when twenty came, the dishes 
gave out. The staff dined early, so that we could have 
theirs, and the Southern woman who occupied two rooms in 
the building lent everything she had. Uncle Charley, our 
cook, who now had found a colored church in which to 
preach on Sunday, did up all his religion on that day, and 
swore all the week, but the cellar-kitchen was distant, and, 
besides, my husband used to argue that it was just as well to 
endure placidly the evils right about us, but not to seek for 
more. The swearing did not interfere with the cooking, and 
Charley thought it necessary to thus clear the kitchen, as our 
yard at that time was black with the colored race. Each of- 
ficer's servant had his circle of friends, and they hovered 
round us like a dark cloud. The dishes that Uncle Charley 
sent up were excellent. The Texas beef and poultry were 
of superior quality, and we even had a respite from condensed 
milk, as a citizen had lent us a cow. 



I46 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

At one of these dinners Eliza had enlisted a colored boy 
to help her wait on the table. I had tried to borrow enough 
dishes, and thought the table was provided. But the glory 
of the occasion departed when, after soup, roast game, etc., 
all served with the great luxury, at that place, of separate 
plates, Uncle Charley bethought himself that he would add, 
as a surprise, a dessert. It is almost unnecessary to say that 
a dessert at that time was an event. Uncle Charley said his 
"best holt " was on meats, and his attempts at pastry would 
not only have ruined the remnant of his temper, but, I am 
afraid, if often indulged in, would have effectually finished 
our digestion. For this I had not counted, and, to my dis- 
may, after the pudding had been deposited with great salaam 
and ceremony before the General, the colored boy rushed 
around and gathered everybody's coffee-saucer. Until he re- 
turned them washed, and placed them at the head of the 
table, I did not imagine what he was doing; I simply waited, 
in that uncertain frame of mind that a hostess well knows. 
My husband looked at the array of cups down the long table, 
standing bereft of their partners, laid his head back and 
shouted. Then everybody else laughed, and, very red and 
very mortified, I concluded to admit that I had not arranged 
for this last course, and that on that table were the united 
contents of all our mess-chests, and there were no saucers or 
dessert-plates nearer than town. We were aware that our 
stay in the South was limited, and made no effort to keep 
enough crockery for dinners of twenty. 

Afrer many enjoyable parties in our parlor, we received a 
pathetic and carefully worded hint from Eliza, who was now 
a great belle, that she would like to return some of the hos- 
pitality shown her by the colored people of the town, and 
my husband was only too glad to prove to Eliza how we val- 
ued her faithful, self-denying life in our service. We com- 
posed an invitation, in which Miss Eliza Brown presented her 
compliments to Mr. Washington or Mr. Jefferson, as the case 
might be, and would be happy to see him on such an even- 
ing, with the word "dancing" in the left-hand corner. A 



LIFE IN A TEXAS TOWN. 14; 

gathering of the darkeys seemed equally jubilant, whether it 
was a funeral, a camp-meeting or a dance; but it seemed 
they made a difference in dress for these occasions, if not in 
manners. So it was best, Eliza thought, to add "dancing," 
though it was only at first a mirthful suggestion of the Gen- 
eral's fertile brain. He gave the copying to the office clerk, 
who, being a professional penman, put as many tails to his 
capitals and flourishes to his words as he did for the white 
folks, Eliza's critical eye watching for any less elaborate em- 
bellishment. 

The lower part of the house was given over to the negroes, 
who polished the floor, trimmed the windows, columns and 
chimney with garlands of live-oak, and lavished candles on 
the scene, while at the supper they had a heterogeneous jum- 
ble of just what they asked for, including coon, the dish gar- 
nished with watercress and bits of boiled beet. I think we 
were not asked; but as the fiddle started the jigs, the Gen- 
eral's feet began to keep time, and he executed some pas 
W around our room, and then, extracting, as usual, a prom- 
ise from me not to laugh, he dragged me down the steps, 
and we hid where we saw it all. The quadrille ended, the 
order of ceremonies seemed to consist in the company going 
down to one end of the room in response to an order from 
Uncle Charley to ' < cl'ar the flo'. " Then the old man of sixty, 
a grandfather, now dressed in white tie, vest and gloves, with 
shining black clothes, took the floor. He knew himself' to be 
the cynosure of all eyes, and bore himself accordingly He 
had previously said to me, " To-night, I expects, Miss Libbie, 
to put down some steps those colored folks has never seen 
befoV And surely he did. He ambled out, as lithe as a 
youngster, cut some pigeon-wings, and then skipped and 
flung himself about with the agility of a boy, stopping not 
only for breath, but to watch the expressions, envious and 
admiring, of the spectators at the end of the room. When 
his last breath was exhausted, Aunt Ann, our old laundress, 
came tripping down the polished floor, and executed a shuf- 
fle, most decorous at first, and then, reviving her youth, she 



I48 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

struck into a hoydenish jig, her son encouraging her by 
patting time. More quadrilles, then another clearing of the 
floor, and a young yellow woman pirouetted down the room, 
in bright green tarlatan petticoats, very short and airy. She 
executed a hornpipe and a reel, and, like Uncle Charley, im- 
provised some steps for the occasion. This black sylph was 
surrounded with a cloud of diaphanous drapery; she wreathed 
her arms about her head, kept on the smirk of the ballet-girl, 
and coquetted and skipped about, with manners that brought 
down the house. The fattest darkey of all waddled down 
next and did a breakdown, at which all the assembly patted 
juba, and with their woolly heads kept time to the violin. 
My husband never moved from his hiding-place, but chuckled 
and shook over the sight, novel to us, till Eliza found us out 
and forgave the " peeking." 

The clothes worn looked as if the property-room of a 
third-rate theatre had been rifled — faded finery, fag ends of 
old lace, tumbled flowers that had done duty at many a 
"white folks' " ball, on the pretty costume of the missus, old 
feathers set up in the wool, where what was left of the plume 
bobbed and quavered, as the head of the owner moved to the 
time of the music, or nodded and swayed back and forth 
while conversation was kept up. The braiding, oiling and 
smoothing had gone on for days previous, to straighten 
the wool and make it lie flat; but the activity in the pursuit 
of pleasure soon set the little kinks free, and each hair stood 
on tiptoe, joining in a jig of its own. The powder begged 
from the toilet-table of the missus was soon swept away in 
the general shine; but the belles cared little for having sus- 
pended temporarily the breath of their rivals by the gor- 
geousness of their toilettes ; they forgot appearances and 
yielded to that absorption of excitement in which the col- 
ored soul is spellbound. 

Eliza moved about, " queening it," as she knew how to do, 
and it was a proud hour of triumph to her, as she cast a 
complacent side glance at the tail of her gown, which she 
had wheedled out of me by cunning arguments, among which 



LIFE IN A TEXAS TOWN. 149 

the most powerful was that "'twas getting so mussed, and 
'twasn't no sort of a dress for a Ginnel's wife, no how." The 
General lost nothing, for he sat in our hidden corner, shak- 
ing and throwing his head back in glee, but keeping a close 
and warning hold on my arm, as I was not so successful in 
smothering a titter as he was, having no mustache to deaden 
the sound. After Eliza discovered us, she let no one know 
of our perfidy, and the company, believing they were alone, 
abandoned themselves to complete enjoyment, as the fiddle 
played havoc with the heels of the entire assembly. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

LETTERS HOME. 

The trivial events of our daily life were chronicled in a 
weekly letter home, and from a number of these school-girl 
effusions I cull a few items, as they give an idea of my hus- 
band's recreations as well as his duties. 

" We are quartered in the Blind Asylum, which is large 
and comfortable. The large rooms in the main part of the 
building we can use for entertaining, while the staff occupy 
the wings and the building in the yard, that was used for a 
schoolroom. Out there they can have all the ' walk-arounds ' 
and ' high-jinks ' they choose, without any one hearing 
them." 

" Our room is large, and, mother, I have two bureaus and 
a wardrobe, and lose my things constantly, I am so unused to 
so much room. We women hardly knew what to make of 
the absence of looking-glasses, as the house is otherwise fur- 
nished, until it occurred to us that the former occupants 
wouldn't get much good out of a mirror. It isn't so neces- 
sary to have one, after all, as I got on all summer very well, 
after I learned to brush my hair straight back and not try 
to part it. I have a mirror now, and am wrestling with back 
hair again. 

" I confess to you, mother, it is a comfort to get out of bed 
on to a carpet, and dress by a fire; but don't tell Armstrong 
I said so, as I never mentioned to him that dressing before 
day, my eyes streaming with tears from the camp-fire while I 
took an ice-water bath, was not the mode of serving my 
country that I could choose." 

" Last Sunday it was uncomfortably warm. We wore thin 
summer clothes, and were languid from the heat. The ther- 

150 



LETTERS HOME. I$I 

mometer was eighty-two in the shade. On Monday the 
weather changed from heat to cold in five minutes, in conse- 
quence of the sudden and violent winds which are called 
' northers.' 

" No one prepares for the cold in this country, but there 
was a general scattering when our first norther attacked us. 
Tom rushed for wood, and of course none was cut. He 
fished Tex out from the kitchen, borrowed an axe from one 
of the headquarters men, and soon appeared with an armful. 
As he took the sticks from Tex to build the fire, out dropped 
a scorpion to add to the excitement. It was torpid, but 
nevertheless it was- a scorpion, and I took my usual safe posi- 
tion, in the middle of the bed, till there was an auto dafe. The 
loose windows rattled, and the wind howled around the cor- 
ner of our room. I put a sack and shawl over my summer 
dress, and we shivered over Tom's fire. I rather wondered 
at Armstrong's huddling, as he is usually so warm, but each 
act of these boys needs investigating. By and by he went off 
to write, while father Custer took out his pipe, to calm the 
troubled scene into which the rush of Nova Zembla had 
thrown us. He sat 'way under the mantel to let the tobacco- 
smoke go up the chimney. Pretty soon Autie returned and 
threw some waste paper on the fire, and the next thing we 
all started violently back from a wild pyrotechnic display. 
With the papers went in a handful of blank cartridges, and 
these innocent-looking scamps faced their father and calmly 
asked him why he had jumped half-way across the room. 
They often repeat this Fourth-of-July exhibition with fire- 
crackers, either tied to his chair, or tossed carelessly on the 
burning logs, when his attention is attracted elsewhere. But 
don't pity him, mother. No matter what trick they play, he 
is never phased. He matches them too, and I help him, 
though I am obliged to confess I often join in the laugh, 
it is all so funny. This was not the last of the hullaba- 
loo. The wood gave out and Autie descended for more. 
Tex took this occasion, when everyone was hunting a fire 
and shelter from the cold, to right what he considered a 



152 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

grievous wrong. Autie found him belaboring another col- 
ored boy, whom he had "downed." Autie investigated, 
for if Tex was right he was bound to let the fight proceed. 
You know in his West Point days he was arrested for allow- 
ing a fisticuff to go on, and because he said, ' Stand back, 
boys, and let's have a fair fight.' But finding our boy in the 
wrong, he arraigned him, and began, ' Did you strike Jake 
with malice aforethought ? ' 'No sah ! no sah ! I dun struck 
him with the back of the hatchet.' At this Autie found 
himself no longer a 'most righteous judge.' This Daniel 
beat a quick retreat, red with suppressed laughter, and made 
Tom go down to do the punishing. Tom shut Tex in the 
chicken-coop; but it was hard for me to see from my window 
his shiny eyes looking out from between the slats, so they 
made the sentence light, and he was set free in the afternoon. 
" Now, mother, I have established the only Yankee wood- 
pile in Texas. I don't mean to be caught again, and shrivel 
up as we did this time. You don't know how these storms 
deceive you. One hour we are so suffocated with the heavy, 
oppressive air, we sit in the deep window-sills and pant for 
breath. Along comes a roaring sound through the tree-tops, 
and there's a scatter, I can tell you. We bang down the 
windows, and shout for Texas to hunt the wood-pile, jump 
into warm clothes, and before we are fairly prepared, the 
hurricane is upon us. We really don't mind it a bit, as it 
doesn't last long (once it lasted three days), besides, it is so 
good to be in something that isn't going to blow down, as we 
momentarily expected in a tent. Our Sundays pass so 
slowly! The traveling-wagon holds a good many, and we 
don't mind close quarters, so we all squeeze in, and the 
bachelor officers ride with us to church. The Episcopal 
church is still open, but as they have no fires we would be 
glad if the rector warmed us up with his eloquence a little 
more. However, it's church, and we begin to feel semi- 
civilized. 

" The citizens are constantly coming to pay their respects 



LETTERS HOME. 153 

to Armstrong. You see, we were welcomed instead of dreaded, 
as, Yankees or no Yankees, a man's life is just as good, pre- 
served by a Federal soldier as by a Confederate, and every- 
body seems to be in a terrified state in this lawless land. 
Among the callers is one man that will interest you, father. 
I believe you are considered authority on the history of the 
fight that took place at Monroe, when the Kentucky regi- 
ment fought the British in 1812. Well, whom do you think 
we have found down here, but the old Colonel Groome who 
distinguished himself that day? He is a white-headed old 
soldier, and when Autie told him that we were right from 
Monroe, he was so affected the tears came to his eyes. It 
was he that set the barn on fire to prevent the British using 
it as a fortification for sharp-shooters. He crawled away 
from the burning building on his hands and knees, while 
their bullets cut his clothes and wounded him several times. 
Years afterward he met an old British officer, who told him, 
in their talk, that the man who fired the barn was killed by 
his own army, but Colonel Groome, in quite a dramatic way, 
said, 'No! I am the man.' He says that he would like to see 
you so much. Autie is greatly interested in this veteran, and 
we are going to call on him, and get two game chickens he is 
to give us. 

" Now, father, don't wrinkle up your brows when I tell you 

that we race horses. Even I race with Mrs. L , and much 

as you may disapprove, I know my father too well not to be 
sure he will be glad that his only daughter beat. But let me 
explain to you that racing among ourselves is not your idea 
of it. There is no money at stake, no rough crowd, none of 
the evils of which you may well disapprove, as we know horse- 
racing at home. Armstrong is considered the best judge of 
a horse here. The Texans supposed no one in the world 
could ride as well as themselves, and they do ride splendidly, 
but those who saw Armstrong keep his place in the saddle 
when Don Juan ran away with him at the grand review in 
Washington, concede that he does know how to ride, how- 
ever mistaken his views on patriotism may be. We have now 



154 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

three running horses and a fast pony, none of which has 
beaten. Autie's bay pony beat a crack runner of which the 
town boasts, by three full lengths. The races are near our 
quarters, so we women can be in it all. Indeed, there is 
nothing they do not share with us. 

" Our stable-boy is a tiny mulatto, a handsome little fellow, 
weighing about eighty pounds. Armstrong thinks he is the 
finest rider he has ever seen. I have just made him a tight- 
fitting red jacket and a red-white-and-blue skull cap, to ride 
in at races. We are running out to the stables half our time. 
Armstrong has the horses exercised on a quarter-of-a-mile 
track, holds the watch and times them, as we sit round and 
enjoy their speed." 

"When I am so intent on my amateur dressmaking, and 
perplexed and tired, dear mother, you wouldn't wonder when 
I tell you that one dress, of which I am in actual need, I cut 
so that the figure ran one way on the skirt and another on 
the waist, and caused Armstrong to make some ridiculous re- 
marks that I tried not to notice, but he was so funny, and the 
dress itself was so very queer when I put it on, I had to give 
in. Well, when I am so bothered, he comes in and throws 
my things all over the room, kicks over the lapboard, and 
picks me up for a tramp to the stable. Then he rubs down 
the horses' legs, and asks me to notice this or that fine point, 
which is all Greek to me. The truth is, that I would rather 
see a fine mane and tail than all the sinew, length of limb, 
etc. Then we sit down on kegs and boxes, and contemplate 
our wealth. Custis Lee greets me with a whinny. Dear 
mother, you would be simply horrified by our back yard. 
Autie and I march to the stables through a dark cloud of 
spectators. The negroes are upon us like the locusts of 
Egypt. It is rumored that our Uncle Charley keeps a flour- 
ishing colored boarding-house in the town, from what is de- 
cidedly more than the crumbs that fall from his master's 
table. After all, though, considering our house is filled with 
company, and we constantly give evening parties, I don't 



LETTERS HOME. 155 

think our mess-bills are very large. Autie teases father Cus- 
ter, by telling him he is going to brigade the colored troops 
and make him chaplain. You are well aware how father 
Custer feels over the 'nigger' question, and how he would 
regard a chaplaincy. I must not forget to tell you that the 
wheel of time has rolled around, and among the regiments in 
Armstrong's command is the Fourth Michigan Infantry. 
Don't you remember that when he was a second lieutenant, 
he crossed the Chickahominy with that regiment, and how, 
having started before dawn, his comrades among whom he 
had just come, did not know him, till, while they were lying 
low, he would pop up his head and call out their first names, 
or their nicknames at school in Monroe, and when it was 
daylight, and they recognized him, how glad they were to 
see him ? " 

" We had a lovely Christmas. I fared beautifully, as some 
of our staff had been to San Antonio, where the stores have 
a good many beautiful things from Mexico. Here, we had 
little opportunity to buy anything, but I managed to get up 
some trifle for each of our circle. We had a large Christmas- 
tree, and Autie was Santa Claus, and handed down the pres- 
ents, making side-splitting remarks as each person walked 
up to receive his gift. The tree was well lighted. I don't 
know how so many tapers were gotten together. Of course 
it would not be us if, with all the substantial gifts, some jokes 
were not slipped in. You know well father Custer's antip- 
athy to the negro, and everybody gathered round to see him 
open, a box containing a nigger doll baby, while two of his 
other parcels held a bunch of fire-crackers and a bunch of 
cards. Lately his sons have spent a good deal of time and 
argument trying to induce him to play. They, at last, taught 
him some simple game, easy enough for even me to master. 
The rogues let him beat at first, but finally he discovered his 
luck was so persistently bad there must be a screw loose, and 
those boys up to some rascality. They had put him, with no 
apparent intention, with his back to the mirror, and, of 



I56 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

course, saw his hand, which, like an amateur, he awkwardly 
held just right to enable them to see all his cards. This end- 
ed his lessons, and we will return him to Monroe the same 
good old Methodist that he left it. Everybody is fond of him, 
and his real presents were a hat, handkerchief, necktie, pipe 
and tobacco. 

" One of our lieutenants, having just received his brevet as 
major, had a huge pair of yellow leaves cut out of flannel, as 
his insignia for the new rank. 

" One of the staff, now a teetotaler, was reminded of his 
past, which I hoped everyone would ignore, by the present 
of a wooden faucet. No one escapes in such a crowd. 

" Tom, who is always drumming on the piano, had a Jew's- 
harp given him, with an explanatory line from Autie attach- 
ed, ' to give the piano a rest.' Only our own military family 
were here, and Armstrong gave us a nice supper, all of his 
own getting up. We played games, sang songs, mostly for 
the chorus, danced, and finally the merriest imitated the 
darkeys by jigs and patting juba, and walk-arounds. The 
rooms were prettily trimmed with evergreens, and over one 
door a great branch of mistletoe, about which the officers 
sang 

" Fair mistletoe ! 

Love's opportunity ! 
What trees that grow 

Give such sweet impunity ?" 

" But it is too bad that, pretty as two or three of our 
women are, they belong to some one else. So kissing begins 
and ends with every man saluting his own wife. 

" I wish you could see the waxen white berries and the 
green leaves of the parasite on the naked branches of the 
trees here, mother; and, oh ! to have you get one sniff of the 
December roses, which rival the summer ones in richness of 
color and perfume, would make my pleasure greater, I as- 
sure you. It is nearly spring here, and the grass on our lawn 
is getting green, and the farmers began to plough in January. 



LETTERS HOME. 157 

" Nettie is such a nurse here ! Her name is up for it, and 
she has even to go out to the servants' quarters if the little 
nigs burn their heels or toes. She is a great pleasure to us 
all, and enjoys every moment." 

It seems that the general racing of which I wrote to my 
father, was too tempting for me to resist entirely, and our 
household was beguiled one day into a promise to bring my 
husband's war-horse, Jack Rucker, down to the citizens' 
track. Every one was confident of success, and no one took 
into consideration that the experiment of pitting gentlemen 
against turf roughs has never been successful. Our officers 
entered into all the preparations with high hopes, thinking 
that with one good whipping the civilians would cease to send 
bantering messages or drag presuming coat-tails before their 
eyes. They were accustomed to putting their steeds to their 
best speed when a party of equestrians from our headquarters 
were riding in their vicinity. Too fond of good horseflesh 
not to admire the pace at which their thoroughbreds sped 
over the smooth, firm roads about Austin, there was still a 
murmured word passed around that the owners of these fleet 
animals would hang their proud heads when "Jack" came 
into the field. We women were pressed into going. All of 
us liked the trial of speed on our own territory, but the hatred 
of a horse-track that was not conducted by gentlemen was 
imbedded deep in our minds. The officers did not ask us to 
go for good luck, as army women are so often told they bring 
it, but they simply said, * ' You could not miss seeing our Jack 
beat ! " Off we went, a gay, boisterous party, till we reached 
the track; there we put on our quietest civilian manners and 
took our place to watch the coming triumph. The track was 
good, and the Texas men and women, more enthusiastic 
over a horse than over anything else in the world, cheered 
their blanketed favorite as he was led up and down before 
the judge's stand. 

When the judge gave the final " Go ! " our party were so 
excited, and our hearts so swelling with assured success, I 
would have climbed up on the saddle to see better, if it 



158 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

had not been that we were surrounded with strangers. Off 
went the beautiful Texas horse, like, an arrow from a bow; 
but our Jack, in spite of the rider sticking the spur and cru- 
elly cutting his silken neck with the whip, only lumbered 
around the first curve, and in this manner laboriously made 
his way the rest of the distance. Of course it was plain that 
we were frightfully beaten, and with loud and triumphant 
huzzas, the Texans welcomed their winning horse long before 
poor Jack dragged himself up to the stand. Our officers 
hurried out to look him over, and found the poor brute had 
been drugged by the contesting side. There was no serious 
injury, except to our pride. We were too disappointed, hu- 
miliated and infuriated to stand upon the order of our going. 
We all turned our backs upon the crowd and fled. The clat- 
ter of our horses' hoofs upon the hard road was the only 
sound, as none of us spoke. 

My husband met that, as everything else, as nothing wor- 
thy of serious regret, and after the tempest of fury over our 
being so imposed upon, I rather rejoiced, because the speed of 
our horses, after that first and last essay, was confined to our 
own precincts. Nobody's pocket suffered, and the wounded 
spirits of those who race horses are more easily soothed if a 
wounded purse has not to be borne in addition. 

There was one member of our family, to whom I have only 
referred, who was our daily joy. It was the pointer, Ginnie, 
whom the Virginia family in Hempstead had given us. My 
husband made her a bed in the hall near our room, and she 
did every cunning, intelligent act of which a dog is capable. 
She used to go hunting, walking and riding with us, and was 
en rapport with her master at all times. I often think, W T ho 
among our friends pleases us on all occasions ? How few 
there are who do not rub us up the wrong way, or whom we 
ourselves are not conscious sometimes of boring, and of tax- 
ing their patience ! And do we not find that we sometimes 
approach those of whom we are fond, and discover intui- 
tively that they are not in sympathy with our mood, and we 
must bide their time for responding to our overtures? With 



LETTERS HOME. 1 59 

that dear Ginnie there was no question. She received us ex- 
actly in the spirit with which we approached her, responded, 
with measure pressed down and running over, to our affec- 
tionate demonstrations, and the blessed old girl never sulked 
if we dropped her to attend to something else. George Eliot 
says, "Animals are such agreeable friends! they ask no 
questions, they pass no criticisms." 

A dog is so human to me, and dogs have been my hus- 
band's chosen friends so many years, I cannot look upon the 
commonest cur with indifference. Sometimes, as I stand 
now at my window, longing for the old pack that whined 
with delight, quarreled with jealousy for the best place near 
us, capered with excitement as we started off on a ride or 
walk, my eyes involuntarily follow each dog that passes on 
the street. I look at the master, to see if he realizes that all 
that is faithful and loving in this world is at his heels. If he 
stops to talk to a friend, and the dog leaps about him, licks 
his hand, rubs against him, and tries, in every way that his 
devoted heart teaches him, to attract the attention of the one 
who is all the world to him, all my sympathies are with the 
dog. I watch with jealous solicitude to see if the affection- 
ate brute gets recognition. And if by instinct the master's 
hand goes out to the dog's head, I am quite as glad and 
grateful as the recipient. If the man is absorbed, and lets 
the animal sit patiently and adoringly watching his very ex- 
pression, it seems to me I cannot refrain from calling his at- 
tention to the neglect. 

My husband was as courteous in responding to his dogs' 
demonstrations, and as affectionate, as he would be to a per- 
son. If he sent them away, he explained, in dog talk, the 
reason, which might seem absurd if our canine family had 
not been our companions so constantly that they seemed to 
understand and accept his excuses as something unavoidable 
on his part. The men of our family so appreciated kindness 
to dogs that I have found myself this winter, involuntarily 
almost, calling to them to see an evidence of affection. One 
of my neighbors is a beer saloon, and though I am too busy 



l6o TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

to look out of the window much, I have noticed occasionally 
an old express horse waiting for his master to take " some- 
thing warming." The blanket was humped up on his back 
mysteriously. It turned out to be a dear little cur, which was 
thus kept warm by a fond master. It recalls our men, and 
the ways they devised for keeping their dogs warm, the times 
innumerable when they shared their own blankets with them 
when caught out in a cold snap, or divided short rations 
with the dogs they loved. 

Returning to Ginnie, I remember a day when there was a 
strange disappearance ; she did not thump her tail on the 
door for entrance, fetching our stockings in her mouth, as a 
gentle hint that it was time to get up and have a fire, if the 
morning was chilly. It did not take the General long to 
scramble into his clothes and go to investigate, for he dearly 
loved her, and missed the morning call. Soon afterward he 
came bounding up the stairs, two steps at a time, to announce 
that no harm had come to our favorite, but that seven other 
little Ginnies were now taking the breakfast provided by their 
mother, under the negro quarters at the rear of the house. 
There was great rejoicing, and preparations to celebrate this 
important event in our family. Eliza put our room in order, 
and descended to the kitchen to tell what antics the General 
was performing over the animal. When she was safely down- 
stairs, where she could not intimidate us, my husband and I 
departed to fetch the new family up near us. The General 
would not trust any one with the responsibility of the removal. 
He crawled under the building, which was set up on low 
piles, and handed out the baby canines, one by one, to me. 
Ginnie ran beside us, frantic with anxiety, but her eloquent 
eyes full of love and trust in our intentions. 

Her bed in the hall was hardly good enough for such an 
epoch in her life, so the whole litter, with the proud mother 
in their midst, was safely deposited in the middle of our bed, 
where we paid court to this royalty. My husband went over 
each little shapeless body, and called my special attention to 
fine points, that, for the life of me, dog-lover as I was, I 



LETTERS HOME. l6l 

could not discover in the pulpy, silken-skinned little rolls. 
As he took them up, one by one, Ginnie understood every 
word of praise he uttered. After all of these little blind atoms 
had been returned to their maternal, and the General had 
congratulated the mother on a restaurant where, he said, the 
advertisement of "warm meals at all hours " was for once 
true, he immediately set about tormenting Eliza. Her out- 
raged spirit had suffered often, to see the kingly Byron re- 
posing his head on the pillow, but the General said, "We 
must get her up-stairs, for there will be war in the camp now." 
Eliza came peacefully up the stairs into our room, but her 
eyes blazed when she saw Ginnie. She asked her usual ques- 
tion, " Did I come way off down in this here no 'count coun- 
try to wash white counterpanes for dogs?" At each speech 
the General said something to Ginnie in reply, to harrow her 
up more and more, and at last she had to give in and laugh 
at some of his drolleries. She recalls to me now her recollec- 
tion: "Miss Libbie, do you mind how the Ginnel landed 
Ginnie and her whole brood of pups in the middle of the 
bed, and then had the 'dacity to send for me ? But, oh ! it 
was perfectly heartrendin', the way he would go on about 
his dogs when they was sick." 

And we both remembered, when one of these little puppies 
of our beloved Ginnie was ill, how he walked the floor half 
the night, holding, rubbing, trying to soothe the suffering 
little beast. And in spite of his medical treatment — for he 
kept the dog-book on his desk, and ransacked it for remedies 
— and notwithstanding the anointing and the coddling, two 
died. 

After Eliza had come down from her rampagious state, she 
was invited to take notice of what a splendid family Ginnie 
had. Then all the staff and the ladies came up to call. It 
was a great occasion for Ginnie, but she bore her honors 
meekly, and offered her paw, as was her old custom, to each 
new-comer, as if prepared for congratulations. When they 
were old enough to run about and bark, Ginnie took up her 
former habit of following at the General's heels ; and as he 



l62 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

crossed the yard to the stables there was so absurd a proces- 
sion that 1 could not help laughing at the commanding offi- 
cer, and question if he himself thought it added to the dignity 
of his appearance, to see the court-like trail of mother and 
five puppies in his wake. The independence of the chief was 
too inborn to be laughed to scorn about appearances, and so 
he continued to go about, as long as these wee toddlers fol- 
lowed their mother in quest of supplies. I believe there were 
twenty-three dogs at this time about our house, most of them 
ours. Even our father Custer accepted a bulky old cur as a 
gift. There was no manner of doubt about the qualities that 
had influenced our persecuted parent in selecting this one 
from the numerous dogs offered him by his farmer friends. 
His choice was made neither on account of breeding nor 
speed. The cur was selected solely as a watch-dog. He was 
all growl and bark, and as devotion is not confined, fortu- 
nately, to the canines of exalted paternity, the lumbering old 
fellow was faithful. Nothing describes him better than some 
lines from " The Outside Dog in the Fight ; " for though he 
could threaten with savage growls, and, I fancy, when aggra- 
vated, could have set savage teeth in the enemy of his mas- 
ter, he trotted beside our father's horse very peacefully, un- 
mindful of the quarrelsome members of our canine family, 
who bristled up to him, inviting an encounter merely to pass 
the time. 

" You may sing of your dog, your bottom dog, 

Or of any dog that you please ; 
I go for the dog, the wise old dog, 

That knowingly takes his ease, 
And wagging his tail outside the ring, 

Keeping always his bone in sight, 
Cares not a pin, in his wise old head, 

For either dog in the fight. 

'" Not his is the bone they are fighting for, 
And why should my dog sail in, 
With nothing to gain but a certain chance 
To lose his own precious skin ? 



LETTERS HOME. 163 

There may be a few, perhaps, who fail 
To see it in quite this light ; 

But when the fur flies I had rather be 
The outside dog in the fight." 
Affairs had come to such a pass that our father took his 
yellow cur into his bedroom at night. It was necessary to 
take prompt, precautionary measures to keep his sons from 
picking the lock of the door and descending on him in their 
marauding expeditions. The dog saw comparatively little of 
outside life, for, as time rounded, it became necessary for the 
old gentleman to shut up his body-guard daytimes also, as 
he found in his absence these same sons and their confeder- 
ates had a fashion of dropping a little " nig " over the transom, 
with directions to fetch back to them anything he could lay 
his hands on. I have seen them at the door while our father 
was away, trying to soothe and cajole the old guardian of his 
master's effects into terms of peace. After all overtures were 
declined, and the little bedroom was filled up with bark and 
growl, the invaders contented themselves with tossing all 
sorts of missiles over the transom, which did not sweeten the 
enraged dog's temper. Nor did it render our father's bed as 
dowmy as it might have been. 

I find myself recalling with a smile the perfectly satisfied 
manner in which this ungainly old dog was taken out by his 
venerable owner on our rides over the country. Father Cus- 
ter had chosen him, not for his beauty, but as his companion, 
and finding him so successful in this one capacity, he was 
just as serene over his possession as ever his sons were with 
their high-bred hunters. The dog looked as if he were a 
make-up from all the rough clay that was discarded after 
modeling the sleek, high-stepping, springy, fleet-footed dogs 
of our pack. His legs were massive, while his cumbersome 
tail curled over his plebeian back in a tight coil, until he was 
tired — then, and only then, did it uncurl. The droop of his 
head was rendered even more "loppy" by the tongue, which 
dropped outside the sagging jaw. But for all that, he lum- 
bered along, a blotch of ungainly yellow, beside our splendid 



164 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

thoroughbreds ; he was never so tired that he could not un- 
derstand the voice of a proud old man, who assured his retro- 
grade sons that he " would match his Bowser 'gainst any of 
their new-fangled, unreliable, highfalutin lot." 

It was a strange sight, though, this one plebeian among 
patricians. Our horses were fine, our father got good speed 
and some style out of his nag, our dogs leaped over the coun- 
try like deer, and there in the midst, panting and faithfully 
struggling to keep up, was the rough, uncouth old fellow, 
too absorbed in endeavoring not to be left behind to realize 
that he was not all that a dog could finally become, after gen- 
erations of training and breeding had done its refining work. 



CHAPTER IX. 

DISTURBED CONDITION OF TEXAS. 

Texas was in a state of ferment from one end to the other. 
There was then no network of railroads running over its vast 
territory as there is now. Lawless acts might be perpetrated, 
and the inciters cross the Rio Grande into Mexico, before 
news of the depredations came to either military or civil head- 
quarters. The regiments stationed at various points in the 
State had no easy duty. Jayhawkers, bandits and bush- 
whackers had everything their own way for a time. 1 now 
find, through official reports, what innumerable perplexities 
came up almost daily, and how difficult it was for an officer 
in command of a division to act in perfect justice to citizen, 
soldier and negro. It was the most natural result in the 
world that the restless throng let loose over the State from 
the Confederate service, should do what idle hands usually 
find to do. Consider what a land of tramps we were at the 
North, after the war ; and if, in our prosperous States and 
Territories, when so many business industries were at once 
resumed, we suffered from that class of men who refused to 
work and kept outside the pale of the law by a stealthy exist- 
ence, what would naturally be the condition of affairs in a 
country like Texas, for many years the hiding-place of out- 
laws? 

My own father was one of the most patriotic men I ever 
knew. He was too old to enter the service — an aged man 
even in my sight, for he had not married till he was forty; 
but in every way that he could serve his country at home he 
was foremost among the elderly patriots of the North. I re- 
member how little war moved me. The clash of arms and 

165 



l66 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

glitter of the soldiery only appealed to me as it did to 
thoughtless, light-hearted young girls still without soldier 
lovers or brothers, who lived too far from the scenes of bat- 
tle to know the tragic side. But my father impressed me by 
his sadness, his tears, his lamentations over our country's 
misfortunes. He was the first in town to get the news from 
the front, and so eager to hear the result of some awful day, 
when lives were being lost by thousands on a hotly contested 
field, that he walked a bleak, lonely mile to the telegraph 
station, waiting till midnight for the last despatches, and 
weeping over defeats as he wearily trod the long way home- 
ward. I remember his striding up and down the floor, his 
grand head bent over his chest in grief, and saying, so sol- 
emnly as to arrest the attention of my stepmother, usually 
absorbed in domestic affairs, and even of me, too happy then 
with the very exuberance of living to think, while the sad- 
ness of his voice touched even our thoughtlessness: "Oh! 
the worst of this calamity will not be confined to war: our 
land, even after peace is restored, will be filled with cut- 
throats and villains." 

The prediction came true immediately in Texas, and the 
troops had to be stationed over the extensive territory. Be- 
fore the winter was over, the civil authorities began to be 
able to carry out the laws; they worked, as they were obliged 
to do, in connection with the military, and the rioting, op- 
pressions and assassinations were becoming less common. It 
was considered unnecessary to retain the division of cavalry 
as an organization, since all anticipated trouble with Mexico 
was over, and the troops need no longer be massed in great 
numbers. The necessity for a special commander for the 
cavalry in the State was over, and the General was therefore 
mustered out of service as a major-general of volunteers, and 
ordered North to await his assignment to a new station. 

We had very little to do in preparation, as our camp outfit 
was about all our earthly possessions at that time. It was a 
trial to part with the elderly dogs, which were hardly worth 
the experiment of transporting to the North, especially as we 



DISTURBED CONDITION OF TEXAS. 167 

had no reason to suppose we should see another deer, except 
in zoological gardens. The hounds fell into good and ap- 
preciative hands, being given either to the planter who had 
presented them, or to the officers of the regular regiment 
that had just been stationed in Texas for a five-years' detail. 
The cow was returned to the generous planter who lent 
her to us. She was now a fat, sleek creature, compared with 
her appearance when she came from among the ranch cattle. 
The stables were emptied, and our brief enjoyment of an em- 
bryo blue-grass farm, with a diminutive private track of our 
own, was at an end. Jack Rucker, Custis Lee, Phil and the 
blooded mare were to go ; but the great bargains in fast ponies 
had to be sacrificed. 

My old father Custer had been as concerned about my 
horse education as his sons. He also tried, as well as his 
boys, to attract my attention from the flowing manes and 
tails, by which alone I judged the merits of a horse, to the 
shoulders, length of limb, withers, etc. One day there came 
an incentive for perfecting myself in horse lore, for my hus- 
band said that if I would select the best pony in a number 
we then owned, I should have him. I sat on a keg in the 
stable-yard, contemplating the heels of the horses, and wish- 
ing fervently I had listened to my former lessons in horse- 
flesh more attentively. All three men laughed at my perplex- 
ities, and even the soldiers who took care of the stable re- 
tired to a safe place to smile at the witticisms of their com- 
manding officer, and were so deplorably susceptible to fun 
that even the wife of their chief was a subject for merriment. 
I was in imminent danger of losing my chance at owning a 
horse, and might to this day have remained ignorant of the pe- 
culiarly proud sensation one experiences over that possession, 
if my father Custer had not slyly and surreptitiously come 
over to my side. How he cunningly imparted the informa- 
tion I will not betray; but, since he was as good a judge of a 
horse as his sons, and had taught them their wisdom in that 
direction, it is needless to say that my final judgment, after 
repeated returns to the stable, was triumphant. Texas made 




GENERAL CUSTER AT THE CLOSE OF THE WAR — AGED 25. 



DISTURBED CONDITION OF TEXAS. 169 

the old saw read, All is fair in love, war and horse-trades, so 
I adapted myself to the customs of the country, and kept the 
secret of my wise judgment until the money that the pony 
brought— forty dollars in silver — was safely deposited in my 
grasping palm. I will not repeat the scoffing of the out- 
witted pair, after I had spent the money, at " Libbie's horse- 
dress," but content myself with my father's praise at the 
gown he had secured to me, when I enjoyed at the North the 
serenity of mind that comes of silken attire. 

The planters came to bid us good-by, and we parted from 
them with reluctance. We had come into their State under try- 
ing circumstances, and the cordiality, generosity and genuine 
good feeling that I know they felt, made our going a regret. 
There was no reason why they should come from their distant 
plantations to say good-by and wish us godspeed, except 
from personal friendship, and we all appreciated the wish 
they expressed that we might remain. 

The journey from Austin to Hempstead was made much 
more quickly than our march over. We had relays of horses, 
the roads were good, and there was no detention. I only 
remember one episode of any importance. At the little ho- 
tel at which we stopped in Brennan, we found loitering about 
the doors and stoop and inner court a lounging, rough lot of 
men, evidently the lower order of Confederate soldiers, the 
lawless set that infest all armies, the tramp and the bummer. 
They gathered in knots, to watch and talk of us. As we 
passed them on our way to the dining-room, they muttered, 
and even spoke audibly, words of spiteful insult. At every 
such word I expected the fiery blood of the General and his 
staff would be raised to fighting heat. But they would not 
descend to altercation with fellows to whom even the presence 
of a woman was no restraint. It was a mystery, it still is, 
to me, that hot-blooded men can control themselves if they 
consider the foeman unworthy of the steel. My husband was 
ever a marvel to me, in that he could in this respect carry 
out his own oft-repeated counsel. I began very early with 
that old maxim, "consider the source," as a subterfuge for 



170 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

the lack of repartee, in choking senseless wrath; but it came 
to be a family aphorism, and I was taught to live up to its 
best meaning. The Confederates were only "barking," not 
"biting," as the General said would be the case; but they 
gave me a genuine scare, and I had serious objections to 
traveling in Texas unaccompanied by a Division of cavalry. 
I think the cold nights, smoky camp-fires, tarantulas, etc., 
that we encountered on our march over, would have been 
gladly undertaken rather than run into the face of threaten- 
ing men, unaccompanied by a single trooper, as we then 
traveled. 

I wonder what the present tourist would think of the bit 
of railroad over which we journeyed from Brennan to Gal- 
veston ! I scarcely think it had been touched, in the way of 
repairs, during the war. The coaches were not as good as 
our present emigrant cars. The rails were worn down thin, 
and so loosely secured that they moved as we rolled slowly 
over them. We were to be constantly in some sort of perils it 
seemed. There was a deep gully on the route, over which 
was stretched a cobweb trestle, intended only as a temporary 
bridge. There was no sort of question about its insecurity; 
it quivered and menacingly swayed under us. The conductor 
told us that each time he crossed he expected to go down. I 
think he imagined there could be no better time than that, 
when it would secure the effectual departure of a few-Yankee 
officers, not only from what he considered his invaded State, 
but from the face of the earth. At any rate, he so graphic- 
ally described to me our imminent peril that he put me 
through all the preliminary stages of sudden death. Of 
course, our officers, inured to risks of all sorts, took it all as 
a matter of course, and the General slyly called the atten- 
tion of our circle to the usual manner in which the " old lady " 
met danger, namely, with her head buried in the folds of 
a cloak. 

My husband knew what interest and admiration my father 
Bacon had for ' ' old Sam Houston , " and he himself felt the de- 
light that one soldier takes in the adventures and vicissitudes 



DISTURBED CONDITION OF TEXAS. 171 

of another. Consequently, we had listened all winter to the 
Texans' laudation of their hero, and many a story that never 
found its way into print was remembered for my father's sake. 
We were only too sorry that Houston's death, two years pre- 
vious, had prevented our personal acquaintance. He was 
not, as I had supposed, an ignorant soldier of fortune, but 
had early scholarly tastes, and, even when a boy, could re- 
peat nearly all of Pope's translation of the Iliad. Though a 
Virginian by birth, he early went with his widowed mother 
to Tennessee, and his roving spirit led him among the In- 
dians, where he lived for years as the adopted son of a chief. 
He served as an enlisted man under Andrew Jackson in the 
war of 181 2, and afterward became a lieutenant in the regu- 
lar army. Then he assumed the office of Indian agent, and 
befriended those with whom he had lived. 

From that he went into law in Nashville, and eventually 
became a Congressman. Some marital difficulties drove him 
back to barbarism, and he rejoined the Cherokees, who had 
been removed to Arkansas. He went to Washington to 
plead for the tribe, and returning, left his wigwam among the 
Indians after a time, and went to Texas. During the tumult- 
uous history of that State, when it was being shifted from one 
government to another with such vehemence, no citizen could 
tell whether he would rise in the morning a Mexican, or a mem- 
ber of an independent republic, or a citizen of the United States. 

With all that period Sam Houston was identified. He was 
evidently the man for the hour, and it is no wonder that our 
officers dwelt with delight upon his marvelous career. In the 
first revolutionary movement of Texas against Mexican rule, he 
began to be leader, and was soon commander-in-chief of the 
Texan army, and in the new Republic he was reelected to that 
office. The dauntless man confronted Santa Anna and his force 
of 5,000 men with a handful of Texans— 783 all told, undisci- 
plined volunteers, ignorant of war. But he had that rare per- 
sonal magnetism, which is equal to a reserve of armed bat- 
talions, in giving men confidence and inciting them to splen- 
did deeds. Out of 1,600 regular Mexican soldiers, 600 were 



172 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

killed, and Santa Anna, disguised as a common soldier, was 
captured. Then Houston showed his magnanimous heart; 
for, after rebuking him for the massacres of Goliad and the 
Alamo, he protected him from the vengeance of the enraged 
Texans. A treaty made with the captive President resulted 
in the independence of Texas. When, after securing this to 
the State of his adoption, Houston was made President of 
Texas, he again showed his wonderful clemency — which I 
cannot help believing was early fostered and enhanced by his 
labors in behalf of the wronged Cherokees — in pardoning 
Santa Anna, and appointing his political rivals to offices of 
trust. If Mr. Lincoln gave every energy to promoting the 
perpetual annexation of California, by tethering that State to 
our Republic with an iron lariat crossing the continent, how 
quickly he would have seen, had he then been in office, what 
infinite peril we were in of losing that rich portion of our 
country. 

The ambition of the soldier and conqueror was tempered 
by the most genuine patriotism, for Sam Houston used his 
whole influence to annex Texas to the Union, and the people 
in gratitude sent him to Washington as one of their first 
Senators. As President he had overcome immense difficul- 
ties, carried on Indian wars, cleared off an enormous debt, 
established trade with Mexico, made successful Indian treaties, 
and steadily stood at the helm, while the State was undergo- 
ing all sorts of upheavals. Finally he was made Governor of 
the State, and opposed secession, even resigning his office 
rather than take the oath required by the convention that 
assembled to separate Texas from the Union. Then, poor 
old man, he died before he was permitted to see the promised 
land, as the war was still in progress. His name is perpet- 
uated in the town called for him, which, as the centre of large 
railroad interests, and as a leader in the march of improve- 
ment in that rapidly progressing State, will be a lasting monu- 
ment to a great man who did so much to bring out of chaos 
a vast extent of our productive land, sure to become one of 
the richest of the luxuriant Southern States. 



DISTURBED CONDITION OF TEXAS. 173 

At Galveston we were detained by the non-arrival of the 
steamer in which we were to go to New Orleans. With a 
happy-go-lucky party like ours, it mattered little; no impor- 
tant interests were at stake, no business appointments await- 
ing us. \ye strolled the town over, and commented, as if we 
owned it, on the insecurity of its foundations. Indeed, for 
years after, we were surprised, on taking up the morning 
paper, not to find that Galveston had dropped down into 
China. The spongy soil is so porous that the water, on which 
rests the thin layer of earth, appears as soon as a shallow ex- 
cavation is attempted. Of course there are no wells, and the 
ungainly cistern rises above the roof at the rear of the house. 
The hawkers of water through the town amused us vastly, 
especially as we were not obliged to pay a dollar a gallon, ex- 
cept as it swelled our hotel-bill. I remember how we all de- 
lighted in the oleanders that grew as shade-trees, whose 
white and red blossoms were charming. To the General, the 
best part of all our detention was the shell drive along the 
ocean. The island on which Galveston has its insecure foot- 
ing is twenty-eight miles long, and the white, firm beach, 
glistening with the pulverized shells extending all the dis- 
tance, was a delight to us as we spent hours out there on the 
shore. 

It must surely have been this white and sparkling thread 
bordering the island, that drew the ships of the pirate Lafitte 
to moor in the harbor early in 1800. The rose-pink of the 
oleander, the blue of the sky, the luminous beach, with the 
long, ultramarine waves sweeping in over the shore, were 
fascinating; but on our return to the town, all the desire to 
remain was taken away by the tale of the citizens, of the fre- 
quent rising of the ocean, the submerging of certain portions, 
and the evidence they gave that the earth beneath them was 
honeycombed by the action of the water. 

We paid little heed at first to the boat on which we em- 
barked. It was a captured blockade-runner, built up with 
two stories of cabins and staterooms for passengers. In its 
original condition, the crew and passengers, as well as the 



174 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

freight, were down in the hull. The steamer was crowded. 
Our staterooms were tiny, and though they were on the upper 
deck, the odor of bilge water and the untidiness of the boat 
made us uncomfortable from the first. The day was sunny 
and clear as we departed, and we had hardly left, the harbor 
before we struck a norther. Such a hurricane as it was at 
sea ! We had thought ourselves versed in all the wind could 
do on land ; but a norther in that maelstrom of a Gulf, makes 
a land storm mild in comparison. The Gulf of Mexico is al- 
most always a tempest in a tea-pot. The waves seem to lash 
themselves from shore to shore, and after speeding with tor- 
nado fleetness toward the borders of Mexico, back they rush 
to the Florida peninsula. No one can be out in one of these 
tempests, without wondering why that thin jet of land which 
composes Florida has not long ago been swept out of exist- 
ence. How many of our troops have suffered from the fury 
of that ungovernable Gulf, in the transit from New Orleans 
to Matamoras or Galveston! And officers have spoken, over 
and over again, of the sufferings of the cavalry horses, con- 
demned to the hold of a Government transport. Ships have 
gone down there with soldiers and officers who have encoun- 
tered, over and over again, the perils of battle. Transports 
have only been saved from being engulfed in those rapacious 
waves by unloading the ship of hundreds of horses; and to 
cavalrymen the throwing overboard of noble animals that 
have been untiring in years of campaigning, and by their 
fleetness and pluck have saved the lives of their masters, is 
like human sacrifice. Officers and soldiers alike bewail the 
loss, and for years after speak of it with sorrow. 

Though the wind seems to blow in a circle much of the 
time on the Gulf, we found it dead against us as we pro- 
ceeded. The captain was a resolute man, and would not 
turn back, though the ship was ill prepared to encounter 
such a gale. We labored slowly though the constantly in- 
creasing tempest, and the last glimpse of daylight lighted a 
sea that was lashed to white foam about us. At home, when 
the sun sets the wind abates; but one must look for an entire 



DISTURBED CONDITION OF TEXAS. 175 

change of programme where the norther reigns. There was 
no use in remaining up, so I sought to, forget my terror in 
sleep, and crept onto one of the little shelves allotted to us. 
The creaking and groaning of the ship's timbers filled me 
with alarm, and I could not help calling up to my husband 
to ask if it did not seem to him that all the new portion of 
the steamer would be swept off into the sea. Though I was 
comforted by assurances of its impossibility, I wished with all 
my heart we were down in the hold. Sleep, my almost 
never-failing friend, came to calm me, and I dreamed of the 
strange days of the blockade-runner, when doubtless other 
women's hearts were pounding against their ribs with more 
alarming terrors than those that agitated me. For we well 
knew what risks Confederate women took to join their hus- 
bands, in the stormy days on sea as well as on land. 

In the night I was awakened suddenly by a fearful crash, 
the quick veering of the boat, and her violent rolling from 
side to side. At the same instant, the overturning of the 
water-pitcher deluged me in my narrow berth. My husband, 
hearing my cry of terror, descended from his berth and was 
beside me in a moment. No one comprehended what had 
happened. The crashing of timber, and the creaking, grind- 
ing sounds rose above the storm. The machinery was stopped, 
and we plunged back and forth in the trough of the sea, each 
time seeming to go down deeper and deeper, until there ap- 
peared to be no doubt that the ship would be eventually en- 
gulfed. There seemed to be no question, as the breaking of 
massive beams went on, that we were going to pieces. The 
ship made a brave fight with the elements, and seemed to 
writhe and struggle like something human. 

In the midst of this, the shouts of the sailors, the trumpet 
of the captain giving orders, went on, and was followed by 
the creaking of chains, the strain of the cordage, and the mad 
thrashing to and fro of the canvas, which we supposed had 
been torn from the spars. Instant disorder took possession 
of the cabin. Everything movable was in motion. The 
trunks, which the crowded condition of the hold had com- 



1/6 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

pelled us to put in the upper end of the cabin, slid down the 
carpet, banging from side to side. The furniture broke from 
its fastenings, and slipped to and fro; the smashing of lamps 
in our cabin was followed by the crash of crockery in the ad- 
joining dining-room; while above all these sounds rose the 
cries and wails of the women. Some, kneeling in their 
night-clothes, prayed loudly, while others sank in heaps on 
the floor, moaning and weeping in their helpless condition. 
The calls of frantic women, asking for some one to go and 
find if we were going down, were unanswered by the terrified 
men. Meanwhile my husband, having implored me to remain 
in one spot, and not attempt to follow him, hastily threw on 
his clothes and left me, begging that I would remember, 
while he was absent, that the captain's wife and child were 
with us, and if a man ever was nerved to do his best, that 
brave husband and father would do so to-night. 

It seemed an eternity to wait. I was obliged to cling to 
the door to be kept from being dashed across the cabin. 
While I wept and shivered, and endured double agony, know- 
ing into what peril my husband had by that time struggled, 
I felt warm, soft arms about me, and our faithful Eliza was 
crooning over me, begging me to be comforted, that she was 
there holding me. Awakened at the end of the cabin, where 
she slept on a sofa, she thought of nothing but making her 
way through the demolished furniture, to take me in her 
protecting arms. Every one who knows the negro character 
is aware what their terrors are at sea. How, then, can I re- 
call the noble forgetfulness of self of that faithful soul, with- 
out tears of gratitude as fresh as those that flowed on her 
tender breast when she held me ? There was not a vestige 
of the heroic about me. I simply cowered in a corner, and 
let Eliza shelter me. Besides, I felt that I had a kind of 
right to yield to selfish fright, for it was my husband, of all 
the men on shipboard, who had climbed laboriously to the 
deck to do what he could for our safety, and calm the agi- 
tated women below. 

Some of the noble Southern women proved how deep was 



DISTURBED CONDITION OF TEXAS. 177 

their natural goodness of heart; for the very ones who had 
coldly looked me over and shrunk from a hated Yankee when 
we met the day before, crept slowly up to calm my terrors 
about my husband, and instruct Eliza what to do for me. At 
last — and oh, how interminable the time had seemed! — the 
General opened the cabin door, and struggled along to the 
weeping women. They all plied him with questions, and he 
was able to calm them, so the wailing and praying subsided 
somewhat. When he climbed up the companionway, the 
waves were dashing over the entire deck, and he was com- 
pelled to creep on his hands and knees, clinging to ropes and 
spars as best he could, till he reached the pilot-house. Only 
his superb strength kept him from being swept overboard. 
Every inch of his progress was a deadly peril. He found the 
calm captain willing to explain, and paid the tribute that one 
brave man gives another in moments of peril. The norther 
had broken in the wheel-house, and disabled the machinery, 
so that, but for the sails, which we who were below had heard 
raised, we must have drifted and tossed to shipwreck. If he 
could make any progress, we were comparatively safe, but 
with such a hurricane all was uncertain. This part of the 
captain's statement the General suppressed. We women 
were told, after the fashion of men who desire to comfort 
and calm our sex, only a portion of the truth. 

The motion of the boat, as it rolled from side to side, made 
every one succumb except Eliza and me. The General, com- 
pletely subdued and intensely wretched physically, crept into 
his berth, and though he was so miserable, I remember, tow- 
ard morning, a faint thrust of ridicule at our adjoining neigh- 
bors, the Greenes, who were suffering also the tortures of sea- 
sickness. A sarcastic query as to the stability of their 
stomachs called forth a retort that he had better look to his 
own. Eliza held me untiringly, and though the terror of un- 
certainty had subsided somewhat, I could not get on without 
an assurance of our safety from that upper berth. My hus- 
band, in his helplessness, and abandoned as he was to physi- 
cal misery, could scarcely turn to speak more than a word or 



178 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

two at a time, and even then Eliza would tell him, " Ginnel, 
you jest 'tend to your own self, and I'll 'tend to Miss Libbie." 

It is difficult to explain what a shock it is to find one who 
never succumbs, entirely subjugated by suffering; all support 
seems to be removed. In all our vicissitudes, 1 had never be- 
fore seen the General go under for an instant. He replied 
that he was intensely sorry for me; but such deadly nausea 
made him indifferent to life, and for his part he cared not 
whether he went up or down. 

So the long night wore on. I thought no dawn ever 
seemed so grateful. The waves were mountains high, and 
we still plunged into what appeared to be solid banks of 
green, glittering crystal, only to drop down into seemingly 
hopeless gulfs. But daylight diminishes all terrors, and there 
was hope with the coming of light. A few crept out, and 
some even took courage for breakfast. The feeble notes dis- 
appeared from my husband's voice, and he began to cheer 
me up. Then he crept to our witty Mrs. Greene (the dear 
Nettie of our home days), to send more sly thrusts in her 
stateroom, regarding his opinion of one who yielded to sea- 
sickness; so she was badgered into making an appearance. 
While all were contributing experiences of the awful night, 
and commenting on their terrors, we were amazed to see the 
door of a stateroom open, and a German family walk out un- 
concernedly from what we all night supposed was an unoc- 
cupied room. The parents and three children showed wide- 
eyed and wide-mouthed wonder, when they heard of the 
night. Through all the din and danger they had peacefully 
slept, and doubtless would have gone down, had we been 
shipwrecked, unconscious in their lethargy that death had 
come to them. 

Then the white, exhausted faces of our officers, who had 
slept in the other cabin, began to appear. Our father Custer 
came tottering in, and made his son shout out with merri- 
ment, even in the midst of all the wretched surroundings, 
when he laconically said to his boy, that " next time I follow 
you to Texas, it will be when this pond is bridged over." 



DISTURBED CONDITION OF TEXAS. 179 

Two of the officers had a stateroom next the pilot-house, and 
begged the General to bring me up there. My husband, 
feeling so deeply the terrible night of terror and entire wake- 
fulness for me, picked me up, and carried me to the upper 
deck, where I was laid in the berth, and restored to some 
sort of calm by an opportune glass of champagne. The wine 
seemed to do my husband as much good as it did me, though 
he did not taste it; all vestige of his prostration of the pre- 
ceding night disappeared, and no one escaped his comical 
recapitulation of how they conducted themselves when we 
were threatened with such peril. My terrors of the sea were 
too deep-rooted to be set aside, and even after we had left 
the hated Gulf, and were safely moving up the Mississippi to 
New Orleans, 1 felt no security. Nothing but the actual 
planting of our feet on terra firma restored my equanimity. 
Among the petitions of the Litany asking our Heavenly 
Father to protect us, none since that Gulf storm has ever 
been emphasized to me as the prayer for preservation from 
"perils by land and by sea." 

New Orleans was again a pleasure to us, and this time we 
knew just where to go for recreation or for our dinner. 
Nearly a year in Texas had prepared us for gastronomic feats, 
and though the General was by no means a bon-vivant, any 
one so susceptible to surroundings as he would be tempted 
by the dainty serving of a French dinner. Our party had 
dined too often with Duke Humphrey in the pine forests of 
Louisiana and Texas, not to enjoy every delicacy served. 
All through the year it had been the custom to refer to the 
luxuries of the French market, and now, with our purses a 
little fuller than when we were on our way into Texas, we 
had some royal times — that is, for poor folks. 

We took a steamer for Cairo, and though the novelty of 
river travel was over, it continued to be most enjoyable. And 
still the staff found the dinner-hour an event, as they were 
making up for our limited bill of fare the year past. A very 
good string band " charmed the savage " while he dined. It 
was the custom, now obsolete, to march the white coated 



l80 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

and aproned waiters in file from kitchen to dining-room, each 
carrying aloft some feat of the cook, and as we had a table 
to ourselves, there was no lack of witty comments on this 
military serving of our food, and smacking of lips over edibles 
we had almost forgotten in our year of semi-civilization. 
The negroes were in a state of perpetual guffaws over the re- 
marks made, sotto voce, by our merry table, and they soon 
grew to be skillful confederates in all the pranks practiced on 
our father Custer. For instance, he slowly read over the bill of 
fare, or his sons read it, and he chose the viands as they were 
repeated to him. Broiled ham on coals seemed to attract his 
old-fashioned taste. Then my husband said, " Of course, of 
course; what a good selection! " and gave the order, accom- 
panied by a significant wink to the waiter. Presently our 
parent, feeling an unnatural warmth near his ear, looked 
around to find his order filled literally, and the ham sizzling 
on red coals. He naturally did not know what to do with 
the dish, fearing to set the boat on fire, and his sons were 
preternaturally absorbed in talking with some one at the end 
of the table, while the waiter slid back to the kitchen to have 
his laugh out. 

Our father Custer was of the most intensely argumentative 
nature. He was the strongest sort of politician; he is now, 
and grows excited and belligerent over his party affairs at 
nearly eighty, as if he were a lad. He is beloved at home in 
Monroe, but it is considered too good fun not to fling little 
sneers at his candidate or party, just to witness the rapidity 
with which the old gentleman plunges into a defense. Michi- 
gan's present Secretary of State, the Hon. Harry Conant, my 
husband's, and now my father's, faithful friend, early took 
his cue from the General, and loses no opportunity now to 
get up a wordy war with our venerable Democrat, solely to 
hear the defense. And then, too, our father Custer considers 
it time well spent to " labor with that young man " over the 
error he considers he has made in the choice of politics. As 
the old gentleman drives or rides his son's war-horse, Dandy, 
through the town, his progress is slow, for some voice is cer- 



DISTURBED CONDITION OF TEXAS. 



181 



tain to be raised from the sidewalk calling out, " Well, father 
Custer, to-day's paper shows your side well whipped," or a 
like challenge to argument. Dandy is drawn up at once, 
and the flies can nip his sides at will, so far as his usually 
careful master is conscious of him, as he cannot proceed until 
the one who has good-naturedly agitated him has been 
struggled over, to convince him of the error of his belief. 

I was driving with him in Monroe not long since, and as 
the train was passing through the town, Dandy was driven 
up to the cars. I expostulated, asking if he intended him to 
climb over or creep under; but he persisted, only explaining 
that he wished me to see how gentle Dandy could be. Sud- 
denly the conductor swung himself from the platform, and 
called out some bantering words about politics. Our father 
was then for driving Dandy directly into the train. He fairly 
yelled some sort of imputation upon the other party, and 
then kept on talking, gesticulating with his whip and shak- 
ing it at the conductor, who laughed immoderately as he was 
being carried out of sight. I asked what was the matter- 
did he have any grudge or hatred for the man ? " Oh, no, 
daughter, he's a good enough fellow, only he's an onery 
scamp of a Republican." 

His sons never lost a chance to enter into discussion with 
him. I have known the General to " bone up," as his West 
Point phrase expressed it, on the smallest details of some 
question at issue in the Republican party, for no other rea- 
son than to incite his parent to a defense. The discussion 
was so earnest, that even I would be deceived into thinking 
it something my husband was all on fire about. But the 
older man was never rasped or badgered into anger. He 
worked and struggled with his boy, and mourned that he 
should have a son who had so far strayed from the truth as 
he understood it. The General argued as vehemently as his 
father, and never undeceived him for days, but simply let the 
old gentleman think how misguided he really was. It served 
to pass many an hour of slow travel up the river. Tom con- 
nived with the General to deprive their father temporarily of 



182 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

his dinner. When the plate was well prepared, as was the old- 
time custom, the potato and vegetables seasoned, the meat 
cut, it was the signal for my husband to hurl a bomb of in- 
flammable information at the whitening hairs of his parent. 
The old man would rather argue than eat, and, laying down 
his knife and fork, he fell to the discussion as eagerly as if 
he had not been hungry. As the argument grew energetic 
and more absorbing, Tom slipped away the father's plate, ate 
all the nicely prepared food, and returned it empty to its 
place. Then the General tapered off his aggravating threats, 
and said, "Well, come, come, come, father, why don't you 
eat your dinner ? " Father Custer's blank face at the sight of 
the empty plate was a mirth-provoking sight to his offspring, 
and they took good care to tip the waiter and order a warm 
dinner for the still arguing man. In a quaint letter, a por- 
tion of which I give below, father Custer tells how, early in 
life, he began to teach his boys politics. 

" Tecumseh, Mich., Feb. 3, 1887. 

" My Dear Daughter Elizabeth: I received your letter, re- 
questing me to tell you something of our trip up the Mississippi 
with my dear boys, Autie and Tommy. Well, as I was always a 
boy with my boys, I will try and tell you of some of our jokes 
and tricks on each other. I want to tell you also of a little in- 
cident when Autie was about four years old. He had to have a 
tooth drawn, and he was very much afraid of blood. When I 
took him to the doctor to have the tooth pulled, it was in the 
night, and I told him if it bled well it would get well right away, 
and he must be a good soldier. When he got to the doctor he 
took his seat, and the pulling began. The forceps slipped off, 
and he had to make a second trial. He pulled it out, and Autie 
never even scrunched. Going home, I led him by the arm. He 
jumped and skipped, and said, ' Father, you and me can whip all 
the Whigs in Michigan.' I thought that was saying a good deal, 
but I did not contradict him. 

" When we were in Texas, I was at Autie's headquarters one 
day, and something came up, I've forgotten what it was, but I 
said I would bet that it was not so, and he said, ' What will you 



DISTURBED CONDITION OF TEXAS. 183 

bet?' I said, ' I'll bet my trunk.' I have forgotten the amount 
he put up against it, but according to the rule of betting he won 
my trunk. I thought that was the end of it, as I took it just as a 
joke, and I remained there with him for some time. To my great 
astonishment, here came an orderly with the trunk on his shoul- 
der, and set it down before Autie. Well, I hardly knew what to 
think. I hadn't been there long, and didn't know camp ways very 
well. I had always understood that the soldiers were a pretty 
rough set of customers, and I wanted to know how to try and 
take care of myself, so I thought I would go up to my tent and 
see what had become of my goods and chattels. When I got 
there, all my things were on my bed. Tom had taken them out, 
and he had not been very particular in getting them out, so they 
were scattered helter-skelter, for I suppose he was hurried and 
thought I would catch him at it. I began to think that I would 
have to hunt quarters in some other direction. 

" The next trick Autie played me was on account of his know- 
ing that I was very anxious to see an alligator. He was out with 
his gun one day, and I heard him shoot, and when he came up to 
his tent I asked him what he had been firing at. He said, an alli- 
gator, so I started off to see the animal, and when I found it, 
what do you think it was, but an old Government mule that had 
died because it was played out! Well, he had a hearty laugh 
over that trick. 

" Then, my daughter, I was going over my mess bill and some 
of my accounts with Tommy, and to my great astonishment I 
found I was out a hundred dollars. I could not see how I 
could have made such a mistake, but I just kept this to myself. 
I didn't say a word about it until Autie and Tom could not stand 
it any longer, so Autie asked me one day about my money mat- 
ters. I told him I was out a hundred dollars, and I could not 
understand it. Then he just told me that Tommy had hooked 
that sum from me while he was pretending to help me straighten 
up. I went for Tom, and got my stolen money back. 

" The next outrage on me was about the mess bill. There was 
you, Libbie, Autie, Tom, Colonel and Mrs. Greene, Major and 
Mrs. Lyon, and we divided up the amount spent each month, and 
all took turns running the mess. Somehow or other, my bill was 
pretty big when Autie and Tom had the mess. I just rebelled 



184 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

against such extravagance, and rather than suffer myself to be 
robbed, I threatened to go and mess with the wagon-master or 
some other honest soldier, who wouldn't cheat an old man. 
That tickled the boys; it was just what they were aiming at. I 
wouldn't pay, so what do you think Tommy did, but borrow the 
amount of me to buy supplies, and when settling time came for 
mess bills, they said we came out about even in money matters! 
" And so they were all the time playing tricks on me, and it 
pleased them so much to get off a good joke; besides, they knew 
I was just as good a boy with them as they were. 

" Your affectionate father, 

" E. H. Custer." 



CHAPTER X. 

GENERAL CUSTER PARTS WITH HIS STAFF AT CAIRO AND 
DETROIT. 

All the smaller schemes to tease our father Custer gave 
way to a grand one, concocted in the busy brains of his boys, 
to rob their parent. While the patriarch sat in the cabin, 
reading aloud to himself — as is still his custom — what he con- 
sidered the soul-convincing editorial columns of a favorite 
paper, his progeny were in some sheltered corner of the 
guards, plotting the discomfiture of their father. The plans 
were well laid; but the General was obliged to give as much 
time to it, in a way, as when projecting a raid, for he knew 
he had to encounter a wily foe who was always on guard. The 
father, early in their childhood, playing all sorts of tricks on 
his boys, was on the alert whenever he was with them, to 
parry a return thrust. I believe several attempts had been 
made to take the old gentleman's money, but he was too 
wary. They knew that he had sewed some bills in his waist- 
coat, and that his steamer ticket and other money were in 
his purse. These he carefully placed under his pillow at 
night. He continues in his letter: " Tommy and I had a 
stateroom together, and on one night in particular, all the 
folks had gone to bed in the cabin, and Tom was hurrying 
me to go to bed. I was not sleepy, and did not want to turn 
in, but he hung round so, that at last I did go to our state- 
room. He took the upper berth. I put my vest under the 
pillow, and was pulling off my boots, when I felt sure I saw 
something going out over the transom. I looked under the 
pillow, and my vest was gone. Then I waked Tommy, who 
was snoring already. I told him both my purse and vest 
were gone, and, as the saying is, I ' smelt the rat.' I opened 

185 



186 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

the door, and felt sure that Autie had arranged to snatch the 
vest and purse when it was thrown out. I ran out in the 
cabin to his stateroom, but he had the start of me, and was 
locked in. I did not know for sure which was his room, so 
I hit and I thundered at his door. The people stuck their 
heads out of their staterooms, and over the transom came a 
glass of water. So I, being rather wet, concluded I would 
give it up till the next morning. And what do you think 
those scamps did ? Tom, though I gave it to him well, wouldn't 
own up to a thing, and just said ' it was too bad such rob- 
beries went on in a ship like that;' he was very sorry for me, 
and alluded to the fact that the door being unlocked was 
proof that the thief had a skeleton key, and all that non- 
sense. Next morning Autie met me, and asked what on 
earth I had been about the night before. Such a fracas ! all 
the people had come out to look up the matter, and there I 
was pounding at a young lady's door, a friend of Libbie's, 
and a girl I liked (indeed, I had taken quite a shine to her). 
They made out — those shameless rogues, and very solemn 
Autie was about it, too — that it was not a very fine thing for 
my reputation to be pounding on a young lady's door late at 
night, frightening her half to death, and obliging her to de- 
fend herself with a pitcher of water. She thought I had 
been trying to break in her door, and I had better go to her 
at once and apologize, as the whole party were being com- 
promised by such scandal. They failed there; for I knew I 
was not at her door, and I knew who it was that threw the 
water on me. I was bound to try and get even with them, 
so one morning, while they were all at breakfast, I went to 
Autie's stateroom; Eliza was making up the bed. I looked 
for Autie's pocket-book, and found it under the pillow. I 
kept out of the way, and did not come near them for some 
days; but they got desperate, and were determined to beat 
me; so they made it up that Tommy was to get round me, 
seize me by my arms at the back, and Autie go through my 
pockets. Well, they left me without a dime, and I had to 
travel without paying, and those outlaws of boys got the clerk 



GEN. CUSTER PARTS WITH HIS STAFF. 1 87 

to come to me and demand my ticket. I told him I had none, 
that I had been robbed. He said he was sorry, but I would 
have to pay over again, as some one who stole the ticket 
would be likely to use it. 1 tried to tell him I would make it 
right before I left the boat, but I hadn't a penny then. Well, 
daughter, I came out best at the last, for Autie, having really 
all the money, though he wouldn't own up to it, had all the 
bills to pay, and when I got home I was so much the gainer, 
for it did not cost me anything from the time I left the boat, 
either, till we got home, and then Autie gave me up my 
pocket-book with all the money, and we all had a good 
langh, while the boys told their mother of the pranks they 
had played on me." 

My father's story ceases without doing justice to himself; 
for the cunning manner in which he circumvented those 
mischievous fellows I remember, and it seems my husband 
had given a full account to our friend the Hon. Harry Co- 
nant. He writes to me, what is very true, that " it seems 
one must know the quaint and brave old man, to appreciate 
how exquisitely funny the incident, as told by the General, 
really was. The third day after the robbery the General and 
Tom, thinking their father engaged at a remote part of the 
boat, while talking over their escapade incautiously exhibited 
the pocket-book. Suddenly the hand that held it was seized 
in the strong grasp of the wronged father, who, lustily call- 
ing for aid, assured the passengers that were thronging up 
(and, being strangers, knew nothing of the relationship of 
the parties) that this purse was his, and that he had been 
robbed by these two scoundrels, and if they would assist in 
securing their arrest and restoring the purse, he would prove 
all he said. Seeing the crowd hesitate, he called out: ' For 
shame ! stand there, cowards, will you, and see an old man 
robbed ? ' It was enough. The spectators rushed in, and 
the General was outwitted by his artful parent and obliged 
to explain the situation. But the consequent restoration of 
his property did not give him half the satisfaction that it did 
to turn the tables on the boys. Though they never acknowl- 




*' STAND THERE, COWARDS, WILL YOU, AND SEE AN OLD 
MAN ROBBED ? " 

1S8 



GEN. CUSTER PARTS WITH HIS STAFF. 1 89 

edged this robbery to their father, none were so proud of his 
victory as Tom and the General." 

I must not leave to the imagination of the literal-minded 
people who may chance to read, the suspicion that my hus- 
band and Tom ever made their father in the least unhappy 
by their incessant joking. He met them half-way always, 
and I never knew them lack in reverence for his snowy head. 
He was wont to speak of his Texas life with his sons as his 
happiest year for many preceding, and used to say that, were 
it not for our mother's constantly increasing feebleness, he 
would go out to them in Kansas. 

When he reached his own ground, he made Tom and the 
General pay for some of their plots and plans to render him 
uncomfortable, by coming to the foot of the stairs and roar- 
ing out (and he had a stentorian voice) that they had better 
be getting up, as it was late. Father Custer thought 6 o'clock 
A. M. was late. His sons differed. As soon as they found 
the clamor was to continue, assisted by the dogs, which he 
had released from the stable, leaping up-stairs and springing 
on Our beds in excitement, they went to the head of the 
stairs, and shouted out for everything that the traveler calls 
for in a hotel — hot water, boot- black, cocktail, barber, morn- 
ing paper, and none of thesf being forthcoming in the simple 
home, they vociferated in what the outsider might have 
thought angry voices, " What sort of hotel do you keep, any 
way ? " 

Father Custer had an answer for every question, and only 
by talking so fast and loud that they talked him down did they 
get the better of him. Our mother Custer almost invariably 
sided with her boys. It made no sort of difference if father 
Custer stood alone, he never seemed to expect a champion. 
He did seem to think that she was carrying her views to an 
advanced point, when she endeavored to decline a new cur 
that he had introduced into the house, on the strength of 
its having "no pedigree." Her sons talked dog to her so 
much that one would be very apt to be educated up to the 
demand for an authenticated grandfather. Besides, the 



190 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

"Towsers" and " Rovers" and all that sort of mongrels, to 
which she had patiently submitted in all the childhood of 
her boys and their boyish father, entitled her to some choice 
in after years. 

At Cairo our partings began, for there some of the staff 
left us for their homes. We dreaded to give them up. Our 
harmonious life, and the friendships welded by the sharing 
of hardships and dangers, made us feel that it would be well 
if, having tested one another, we might go on in our future 
together. At Detroit the rest of our military family disband- 
ed!' How the General regretted them ! The men, scarce 
more than boys even then, had responded to every call to 
charge in his Michigan brigade, and afterward in the Third 
Cavalry Division. Some, wounded almost to death, had 
been carried from his side on the battle-field, as he feared, 
forever, and had returned with wounds still unhealed. One 
of those valiant men has just died, suffering all these twenty- 
three years from his wound ; but in writing, speaking in 
public when he could, talking to those who surrounded him 
when he was too weak to do more, one name ran through 
his whole anguished life, one hero hallowed his days, and 
that was his "boy-general." Still another of our military 
family, invalided by his eleven months' confinement in Libby 
Prison, set his wan, white face toward the uncertain future 
before him, and began his bread-winning, his soul undaunt- 
ed by his disabled body. Another — oh, what a brave boy he 
was !— took my husband's proffered aid, and received an ap- 
pointment in the regular army. He carried always, does now, 
a shattered arm, torn by a bullet while he was riding beside 
General Custer in Virginia. That did not keep him from 
giving his splendid energy, his best and truest patriotism, to 
his country down in Texas even after the war, for he rode 
on long, exhausting campaigns after the Indians, his wound 
bleeding, his life sapped, his vitality slipping away with the 
pain that never left him day or night. That summer when 
we were at home in Monroe, the General sent for him to 
come to us, and get his share of the pretty girls that Tom 



GEN. CUSTER PARTS WITH HIS STAFF. I91 

and the Michigan staff, who lived near us, were appropriat- 
ing. The handsome, dark-haired fellow carried of! the fa- 
vors ; for though the others had been wounded — Tom even 
then bearing the scarlet spot on his cheek where the bullet 
had penetrated — the last comer won, for he still wore his arm 
in a sling. The bewitching girls had before them the evi- 
dence of his valor, and into what a garden he stepped ! He 
was a modest fellow, and would not demand too much pity, 
but made light of his wound, as is the custom of soldiers, 
who, dreading effeminacy, carry the matter too far, and ig- 
nore what ought not to be looked upon slightingly. One 
day he appeared without his sling, and a careless girl, danc- 
ing with him, grasped the arm in the forgetfulness of glee. 
The waves of torture that swept over the young hero's face, 
the alarm and pity of the girl, the instant biting of the lip 
and quick smile of the man, dreading more to grieve the 
pretty creature by him than to endure the physical agony — 
oh, how proud the General was of him, and I think he felt 
badly. that a soldier cannot yield to impulse, and enfold his 
comrade in his arms, as is our woman's sweet privilege with 
one another. 

Proudly the General followed the career of those young 
fellows who had been so near him in his war-life. Of all 
those in whom he continued always to retain an interest, 
keeping up in some instances a desultory correspondence, 
the most amazing evolution was that of the provost-marshal 
into a Methodist minister. Whether he was at heart a stern, 
unrelenting character, is a question I doubted, for he never 
could have developed into a clergyman. But he had the 
strangest, most implacable face, when sent on his thankless 
duty by his commanding officer. He it was who conducted 
the ceremonies that one awful day in Louisiana, when the 
execution and pardon took place. I remember the General's 
amazement .vhen he received the letter in which the an- 
nouncement of the new life-work was made. It took us both 
some time to realize how he would set about evangelizing. 
It was difficult to imagine him leading any one to the throne 



192 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

of grace, except at the point of the bayonet, with a military 
band playing the Dead March in Saul. I know how pleased 
my husband was, though, how proud and glad to know that 
a splendid, brave soldier had given his talents, his courage — 
and oh, what courage for a man of the world to come out 
in youth on the side of one mighty Captain ! — and taken up 
the life of poverty, self-denial, and something else that the 
General also felt a deprivation, the roving life that deprives 
a Methodist minister of the blessings of a permanent home. 

The delightful letters we used to get from our military fam- 
ily when any epoch occurred in their lives, like the choice of 
a profession or business (for most of them went back to civil 
life), their marriage, the birth of a son -all gave my husband 
genuine pleasure ; and when their sorrows came he turned 
to me to write the letter — a heart-letter, which was his in all 
but the manipulation of the pen. His personal influence he 
gave, time and time again, when it was needed in their 
lives, and, best of all in my eyes, had patience with those 
who had a larger sowing of the wild-oat crop, which is the 
agricultural feature in the early life of most men. 

Since I seek to make my story of others, I take the priv- 
ilege of speaking of a class of heroes that I now seldom hear 
mentioned, and over whom, in instances of my husband's 
personal friends, we have grieved together. It is to those 
who, like his young staff-officer, bear unhealed and painful 
wounds to their life's end that I wish to beg our people to 
give thought. We felt it rather a blessing, in one way, when 
a man was visibly maimed ; for if a leg or an arm is gone, the 
empty sleeve or the halting gait keeps his country from for- 
getting that he has braved everything to protect her. The 
men we sorrowed for were those who suffered silently ; and 
there are more, North and South, than anyone dreams of, 
scattered all over our now fair and prosperous land. Some- 
times, after they die, it transpires that at the approach of 
every storm they have been obliged to stop work, enter into 
the seclusion of their rooms, and endure the racking, tortur- 
ing pain, that began on the battle-field so long ago. If any- 



GEN. CUSTER TARTS WITH HIS STAFF. 193 

one finds this out in their lifetime, it is usually by accident ; 
and when asked why they suffer without claiming the sym- 
pathy that does help us all, they sometimes reply that the 
war is too far back to tax anyone's memory or sympathy now. 
Oftener, they attempt to ignore what they endure, and 
change the subject instantly. People would be surprised to 
know how many in the community, whom they daily touch 
in the jostle of life, are silent sufferers from wounds or incur- 
able disease contracted during the war for the Union. The 
monuments, tablets, memorials which are strewn with flowers 
and bathed with grateful tears, have often tribute that should 
be partly given to the double hero who bears on his bruised 
and broken body the torture of daily sacrifice for his country. 
People, even if they know, forget the look, the word of ac- 
knowledgment, that is due the maimed patriot. 

I recall the chagrin I felt on the Plains one day, when one 
of our Seventh Cavalry officers, with whom we had long been 
intimately associated— one whom our people called "Fresh 
Smith'," or " Smithie," for short— came to his wife to get 
her to put on his coat. I said something in bantering tones 
of his Plains life making him look on his wife as the Indian 
looks upon the squaw, and tried to rouse her to rebellion. 
There was a small blaze, a sudden scintillation from a pair of 
feminine eyes, that warned me of wrath to come. The cap- 
tain accepted my banter, threw himself into the saddle, 
laughed back the advantage of this new order of things, 
where a man had a combination, in his wife, of servant and 
companion, and tore out of sight, leaving me to settle ac- 
counts with the flushed madame. She told me, what I never 
knew, and perhaps might not even now, but for the outburst 
of the moment, that in the war "Smithie" had received a 
wound that shattered his shoulder, and though his arm was 
narrowly saved from amputation, he never raised it again, 
except a few inches. As for putting on his coat, it was an 
impossibility. 

One day in New York my husband and I were paying our 
usual homage to the shop windows and to the beautiful 



194 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

women we passed, when he suddenly seized my arm and said, 
"There's Kiddoo ! Let's catch up with him." I was skip- 
ped over gutters, and sped over pavements, the General un- 
conscious that such a gait is not the usual movement of the 
New Yorker, until we came up panting each side of a tall, 
fine-looking man, apparently a specimen of physical perfec- 
tion. The look of longing that he gave us as we ran up, flushed 
and happy, startled me, and I could scarcely wait until we 
separated, to know the meaning. It was this : General Jo- 
seph B. Kiddoo, shot in the leg during the war, had still the 
open wound, from which he endured daily pain and nightly 
torture, for he got only fragmentary sleep. To heal the hurt 
was to end his life, the surgeons said. When at last I heard 
he had been given release and slept the blessed sleep, what 
word of sorrow could be framed ? 

In the case of another friend, with whom we were stay- 
ing in Tennessee, from whom my husband and I extracted 
the information by dint of questions and sympathy, when, 
late one night, we sat about the open fire, and were warmed 
into confidence by its friendly glow, we found that no single 
night for the twelve years after the war had such a boon as 
uninterrupted sleep been known to him. A body racked by 
pain was paying daily its loyal, uncomplaining tribute to his 
country. Few were aware that he had unremitting suffering 
as his constant companion. I remember that my husband 
urged him to marry, and get some good out of life and from 
the sympathy that wells perpetually in a tender woman's 
heart. But he denied himself the blessing of such compan- 
ionship, from unselfish motives, declaring he could not ask 
a woman to link her fate with such a broken life as his. 
When we left his fireside, my husband counted him a hero 
of such rare mettle that few in his experience could equal him, 
and years afterward, when we sometimes read his name in 

print, he said, " Poor ! I wonder if there's any let-up for 

the brave fellow." 

Our home-coming was a great pleasure to us and to our 
two families. My own father was proud of the General's ad- 



GEN. CUSTER PARTS WITH HIS STAFF. 195 

ministration of civil as well as military affairs in Texas, and 
enjoyed the congratulatory letter of Governor Hamilton 
deeply. The temptations to induce General Custer to leave 
the service and enter civil life began at once, and were many 
and varied. He had not been subjected to such allurements 
the year after the war, when the country was offering posts 
of honor to returned soldiers, but this summer of our return 
from Texas, all sorts of suggestions were made. Business 
propositions, with enticing pictures of great wealth, came to 
him. He never cared for money for money's sake. No one 
that does, ever lets it slip through his fingers as he did. Still, 
his heart was set upon plans for his mother and father, and 
for his brothers' future, and I can scarcely see now how a man 
of twenty-five could have turned his back upon such alluring 
schemes for wealth as were held out to him. It was at that 
time much more customary than now, even, to establish cor- 
porations with an officer's name at the head who was known 
to have come through the war with irreproachable honor, 
proved possibly as much by his being as poor when he came 
out of service as when he went in, as by his conduct in bat- 
tle. The country was so unsettled by the four years of strife 
that it was like beginning all over again, when old companies 
were started anew. Confidence had to be struggled for, and 
names of prominent men as associate partners or presidents 
were sought for persistently. 

Politics offered another form of temptation. The people 
demanded for their representatives the soldiers under whom 
they had served, preferring to follow the same leaders in the 
political field that had led them in battle. The old soldiers, 
and civilians also, talked openly of General Custer for Con- 
gressman or Governor. It was a summer of excitement and 
uncertainty. How could it be otherwise to a boy who, five 
brief years before, was a beardless youth with no apparent 
future before him ? I was too much of a girl to realize what 
a summer it was — indeed, we had little chance, so fast did 
one proposition for our future follow upon the other. When 
the General was offered the appointment of foreign Minister, 



I96 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

I kept silence as best I could, but it was desperately hard 
work. Honors, according to old saws, "were empty," but 
in that hey-day time they looked very different to me. 
I was inwardly very proud, and if I concealed the fact be- 
cause my husband expressed such horror of inflated people, 
it was only after violent effort. 

Among the first propositions was one for the General to 
take temporary service with Mexico. This scheme found no 
favor with me. It meant more fighting and further danger 
for my husband, and anxiety and separation for me. Be- 
sides, Texas association with Mexicans made me think their 
soldiery treacherous and unreliable. But even in the midst 
of the suspense pending the decision I was not insensible to 
this new honor that was offered. 

Carvajal, who was then at the head of the Juarez military 
government, offered the post of Adjutant-General of Mexico 
to General Custer. The money inducements were, to give 
twice the salary in gold that a major-general in our army re- 
ceives. As his salary had come down from a major-gener- 
al's pay of $8,000 to $2,000, this might have been a tempta- 
tion surely. There was a stipulation that one or two thou- 
sand men should be raised in the United States, any debts 
assumed in organizing this force to be paid by the Mexican 
Liberal Government. Sefior Romero, the Mexican Minister, 
did what he could to further the application of Carvajal, and 
General Grant wrote his approval of General Custer's ac- 
ceptance, in a letter in which he speaks of my husband in 
unusually flattering terms, as one "who rendered such dis- 
tinguished service as a cavalry officer during the war," add- 
ing, " There was no officer in that branch of the service who 
had the confidence of General Sheridan to a greater degree 
than General Custer, and there is no officer in whose judg- 
ment I have greater faith than in Sheridan's. Please under- 
stand, then, that I mean to endorse General Custer in a high 
degree." 

The stagnation of peace was being felt by those who 
had lived a breathless four years at the front. However 



GEN. CUSTER PARTS WITH HIS STAFF. 197 

much they might rejoice that carnage had ceased and no 
more broken hearts need be dreaded, it was very hard to 
quiet themselves into a life of inaction. No wonder our offi- 
cers went to the Khedive for service ! no wonder this prom- 
ise of active duty was an inviting prospect for my husband ! 
It took a long time for civilians, even, to tone themselves 
down to the jog-trot of peace. 

Everything looked, at that time, as if there was success 
awaiting any soldier who was resolute enough to lead troops 
against one they considered an invader. Nothing nerves a 
soldier's arm like the wrong felt at the presence of foreigners 
on their own ground, and the prospect of destruction of 
their homes. Maximilian was then uncertain in his hold 
on the Government he had established, and, as it soon 
proved, it would have been what General Custer then thought 
comparatively an easy matter to drive out the usurper. The 
question was settled by the Government's refusing to grant 
the year's leave for which application was made, and the 
General was too fond of his country to take any but temporary 
service in another. 

This decision made me very grateful, and when there was 
no longer danger of further exposure of life, I was also 
thankful for the expressions of confidence and admiration of 
my husband's ability as a soldier that this contemplated 
move had drawn out. I was willing my husband should ac- 
cept any offer he had received except the last. I was tempted 
to beg him to resign; for this meant peace of mind and a 
long, tranquil life for me. It was my father's counsel alone 
that kept me from urging each new proposition to take up 
the life of a civilian. He advised me to forget myself. He 
knew well what a difficult task it was to school myself to en- 
dure the life on which I had entered so thoughtlessly as a 
girl. I had never been thrown with army people, and knew 
nothing before my marriage of the separations and anxieties 
of military life. Indeed, I was so young that it never occurred 
to me that people could become so attached to each other 
that it would be misery to be separated. And now that this 



198 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

divided existence loomed up before me, father did not blame 
me for longing for any life that would ensure our being 
together. He had a keen sense of humor, and could not 
help reminding me occasionally, when I told him despair- 
ingly that I could not, I simply would wot, live a life where I 
could not be always with my husband, of days before I knew 
the General, when I declared to my parents, if ever I did 
marry it would not be a dentist, as our opposite neighbor ap- 
peared never to leave the house. It seemed to me then that 
the wife had a great deal to endure in the constant presence 
of her husband. 

My father, strict in his sense of duty, constantly appealed 
to me to consider only my husband's interests, and forget my 
own selfish desires. In an" old letter written at that time, I 
quoted to the General something that father had said to me: 
" Why, daughter, I would rather have the honor which grows 
out of the way in which the battle of Waynesboro was fought, 
than to have the wealth of the Indies. Armstrong's battle 
is better to hand down to posterity than wealth." He used 
in those days to walk the floor and say to me, " My child, 
put no obstacles in the way to the fulfillment of his destiny. 
He chose his profession. He is a born soldier. There he 
must abide." 

In the midst of this indecision, when the General was 
obliged to be in New York and Washington on business, my 
father was taken ill. The one whom I so sorely needed in 
all those ten years that followed, when I was often alone in 
the midst of the dangers and anxieties and vicissitudes attend- 
ing our life, stepped into heaven as quietly and peacefully as 
if going into another room. His last words were to urge me 
to do my duty as a soldier's wife. He again begged me to 
ignore self, and remember that my husband had chosen the 
profession of a soldier; in that life he had made a name, and 
there, where he was so eminently fitted to succeed, he should 
remain. 

My father's counsel and his dying words had great weight 
with me, and enabled me to fight against the selfishness that 



GEN. CUSTER PARTS WITH HIS STAFF. 199 

was such a temptation. Very few women, even the most 
ambitious for their husbands' future, but would have con- 
fessed, at the close of the war, that glory came with too great 
sacrifices, and they would rather gather the husbands, lovers 
and brothers into the shelter of the humblest of homes, than 
endure the suspense and loneliness of war times. I am sure 
that my father was right, for over and over again, in after 
years, my husband met his brother officers who had resigned, 
only to have poured into his ear regrets that they had left 
the service. I have known him to come to me often, saying 
he could not be too thankful that he had not gone into civil 
life. He believed that a business man or a politician should 
have discipline in youth for the life and varied experience 
with all kinds of people, to make a successful career. Of- 
ficers, from the very nature of their life, are prescribed in 
their associates. They are isolated so much at extreme posts 
that they know little or nothing of the life of citizens. After 
resigning, they found themselves robbed of the companion- 
ship so dear to military people, unable, from want of early 
training, to cope successfully with business men, and lacking, 
from inexperience, the untiring, plodding spirit that is req- 
uisite to the success of a civilian. An officer rarely gives a 
note — his promise is his bond. It is seldom violated. It 
would be impossible for me, even in my twelve years' experi- 
ence, to enumerate the times I have known, when long- 
standing debts, for which there was not a scrap of written 
proof, were paid without solicitation on the part of the friend 
who was the creditor. One of our New York hotels furnishes 
proof of how an officer's word is considered. A few years 
since, Congress failed to make the usual yearly appropriation 
for the pay of the army. A hotel that had been for many 
years the resort of military people, immediately sent far and 
wide to notify the army that no bills would be presented until 
the next Congress had passed the appropriation. To satisfy 
myself, I have inquired if they lost by this, and been assured 
that they did not. 

Men reared to consider their word equal to the most bind- 



200 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ing legal contract ever made, would naturally find it difficult 
to realize, when entering civil life, that something else is 
considered necessary. The wary take advantage of the cre- 
dulity of a military man, and usually the first experience is 
financial loss to an officer who has confidingly allowed a 
debt to be contracted without all the restrictive legal arrange- 
ments with which citizens have found it necessary to surround 
money transactions. And so the world goes. The capital 
with which an officer enters into business is lost by too much 
confidence in his brother man, and when he becomes richer 
by experience, he is so poor in pocket he cannot venture into 
competition with the trained and skilled business men among 
whom he had entered so sanguinely. 

Politics also have often proved disastrous to army officers. 
Allured by promises, they have accepted office, and been al- 
lowed a brief success; but who can be more completely done 
for than an office-holder whose party goes out of power ? The 
born politician, one who has grown wary in the great game, 
provides for the season of temporary retirement which the 
superseding of his party necessitates. His antagonist calls it 
"feathering his nest," but a free-handed and sanguine mili- 
tary man has done no " feathering," and it is simply pitiful 
to see to what obscurity and absolute poverty they are brought. 
The men whose chestnuts the ingenuous, unsuspecting man 
has pulled out of the fire, now pass him by unnoticed.. Such 
an existence to a proud man makes him wish he had died on 
the field of battle, before any act of his had brought chagrin. 

All these things I have heard my husband say, when we 
have encountered some heartbroken man; and he worked 
for nothing harder than that they might be reinstated in the 
service, or lifted out of their perplexities by occupation of 
some sort. There was an officer, a classmate at West Point, 
who, he felt with all his heart, did right in resigning. If he 
had lived he would have written his tribute, and I venture to 
take up his pen to say, in my inadequate way, what he would 
have said so well, moved by the eloquence of deep feeling. 

My husband believed in what old-fashioned people term 



GEN. CUSTER PARTS WITH HIS STAFF. 201 

a "calling," and he himself had felt a call to be a soldier, 
when he could scarcely speak plain. It was not the usual 
early love of boys for adventure. We realize how natural it 
is for a lad to enjoy tales of hotly contested fields, and to 
glory over bloodshed. The boy in the Sunday-school, when 
asked what part of the Bible he best liked, said promptly, 
" The fightenest part! " and another, when his saintly teacher 
questioned him as to whom he first wished to see when he 
reached heaven, vociferated loudly, "Goliath!" But the 
love of a soldier's life was not the fleeting desire of the child, 
in my husband; it became the steady purpose of his youth, 
the happy realization of his early manhood. For this reason 
he sympathized with all who felt themselves drawn to a cer- 
tain place in the world. He thoroughly believed in a boy (if 
it was not a pernicious choice) having his "bent." And so 
it happened, when it was our good fortune to be stationed 
with his classmate, Colonel Charles C. Parsons, at Leaven- 
worth, that he gave a ready ear when his old West Point 
chum, poured out his longings for a different sphere in life. 
He used to come to me after these sessions, when the Colo- 
nel went over and over again his reasons for resigning, and 
wonder how he could wish to do so, but he respected his 
friend's belief that he had another "calling" too thoroughly 
to oppose him. He thought the place of captain of a battery 
of artillery the most independent in the service. He is de- 
tached from his regiment, he reports only to the command- 
ing officer of the post, he is left so long at one station that 
he can make permanent arrangements for comfort, and, ex- 
cept in times of war, the work is garrison and guard duty. 
Besides this, the pay of a captain of a battery is good, and 
he is not subject to constant moves, which tax the finances 
of a cavalry officer so severely. After enumerating these ad- 
vantages, he ended by saying, " There's nothing to be done, 
though, for if Parsons thinks he ought to go into an uncer- 
tainty, and leave what is a surety for life, why, he ought to 
follow his convictions." 

The next time we saw the Colonel, he was the rector of a 



202 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

small mission church on the outskirts of Memphis. We were 
with the party of the Grand Duke Alexis when he went by 
steamer to New Orleans. General Sheridan had asked Gen- 
eral Custer to go on a buffalo-hunt with the Duke in the 
Territory of Wyoming, and he in turn urged the General to 
remain with him afterward, until he left the country. At 
Memphis, the city gave a ball, and my husband begged his 
old comrade to be present. It was the first time since his 
resignation that the Colonel and his beautiful wife had been 
in society. Their parish was poor, and they had only a small 
and uncertain salary. Colonel Parsons was not in the least 
daunted; he was as hopeful and as enthusiastic as such ear- 
nest people alone can be, as certain he was right as if his duty 
had been revealed to him as divine messages were to the 
prophets of old. The General was touched by the fearless 
manner in which he faced poverty and obscurity. 

It would be necessary for one to know, by actual observa- 
tion, what a position of authority, of independence, of assured 
and sufficient income, he left, to sink his individuality in this 
life that he consecrated to his Master. When he entered 
our room, before we went to the ballroom, he held up his 
gloved hands to us and said: " Custer, I wish you to realize 
into what extravagance you have plunged me. Why, old 
fellow, this is my first indulgence in such frivolities since I 
came down here." Mrs. Parsons was a marvel to us. The 
General had no words that he thought high enough praise 
for her sacrifice. Hers was for her husband, and not a com- 
plaint did she utter. 

Here, again, I should have to take my citizen reader into 
garrison before I could make clear what it was that she gave 
up. The vision of that pretty woman, as I remember her at 
Leavenworth, is fresh in my mind. She danced and rode 
charmingly, and was gracious and free from the spiteful envy 
that sometimes comes when a garrison belle is so attractive 
that the gossips say she absorbs all the devotion. Colonel 
Parsons, not caring much for dancing, used to stand and 
watch with pride and complete confidence when the men 



GEN. CUSTER PARTS WITH HIS STAFF. 203 

gathered round his wife at our hops. There were usually 
more than twice as many men as women, and the card of a 
good dancer and a favorite was frequently filled before she 
left her own house for the dancing-room. 1 find myself still 
wondering how any pretty woman ever kept her mental poise 
when queening it at those Western posts. My husband, who 
never failed to be the first to notice the least sacrifice that a 
woman made for her husband, looked upon Mrs. Parsons 
with more and more surprise and admiration, as he contrasted 
the life in which we found her with her former fascinating 
existence. 

The Colonel, after making his concession and coming to 
our ball, asked us in turn to be present at his church on the 
following Sunday, and gave the General a little cheap printed 
card, which he used to find his way to the suburbs of the city. 
Colonel Parsons told me, next day, that when he entered the 
reading-desk and looked down upon the dignified, reverent 
head of my husband, a remembrance of the last time he had 
seen him in the chapel at West Point came like a flash of 
lightning into his mind, and he almost had a convulsion, in 
endeavoring to suppress the gurgles of laughter that struggled 
for expression. For an instant he thought, with desperate 
fright, that he would drop down behind the desk and have 
it out, and only by the most powerful effort did he rally. It 
seems that a cadet in their corps had fiery red hair, and dur- 
ing the stupid chapel sermon Cadet,Custer had run his fingers 
into the boy's hair, who was in front of him, pretending 
to get them into white heat, and then, taking them out, 
pounded them as on an anvil. It was a simple thing, and a 
trick dating many years back, but the drollery and quickness 
of action made it something a man could not recall with 
calmness. 

Colonel Parsons and his wife are receiving the rewards that 
only Heaven can give to lives of self-sacrifice. Mrs. Parsons, 
after they came North to a parish, only lived a short time to 
enjoy the comfort of an Eastern home. When the yellow 
fever raged so in the Mississippi Valley, in 1878, and volun- 



204 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

teers came forward with all the splendid generosity of this 
part of the world, Colonel Parsons did not wait a second call 
from his conscience to enter the fever-scourged Memphis, 
and there he ended a martyr life: not only ready to go be- 
cause in his Master's service, but because the best of his life, 
and one for whom he continually sorrowed, awaited him be- 
yond the confines of eternity. 



CHAPTER XI. 

ORDERS TO REPORT AT FORT RILEY, KANSAS. 

General Custer was the recipient of much kindness from 
the soldiers of his Michigan brigade while he remained in 
Michigan awaiting orders, and he went to several towns 
where his old comrades had prepared receptions for him. 
But when he returned from a reunion in Detroit to our sad- 
dened home, there was no grateful, proud father to listen to 
the accounts of the soldiers' enthusiasm. My husband 
missed his commendation, and his proud way of referring to 
his son. His own family were near us, and off he started, 
when he felt the absence of the noble parent who had so 
proudly followed his career, and, running through our stable 
to shorten the distance, danced up a lane through a back 
gate into his mother's garden, and thence into the midst of 
his father's noisy and happy household. His parents, the 
younger brother, Boston, sister Margaret, Colonel Tom, and 
often Eliza, made up the family, and the uproar that these 
boys and the elder boy, their father, made around the gentle 
mother and her daughters, was a marvel to me. 

If the General went away to some soldiers' reunion, he 
tried on his return to give me a lucid account of the cere- 
monies, and how signally he failed in making a speech, of 
course, and his subterfuge for hiding his confusion and get- 
ting out of the scrape by proposing ' ' Garry Owen " by the 
band, or three cheers for the old brigade. It was not that 
he had not enough to say: his heart was full of gratitude to 
his comrades, but the words came forth with such a rush, 
there was little chance of arriving at the meaning. I think 
nothing moved him in this coming together of his dear sol- 



206 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

diers, like his pride at their naming babies after him. His 
eyes danced with pleasure, when he told that they stopped 
him in the street and held up a little George Armstrong Cus- 
ter, and the shy wife was brought forward to be congratulated. 
I dearly loved, when I chanced to be with him, to witness 
their pride and hear their few words of praise. 

Not long ago I was in a small town in Michigan, among 
some of my husband's old soldiers. Our sister Margaret was 
reciting for the benefit of the little church, and the veterans 
asked for me afterward, and I shook hands with a long line 
of bronzed heroes, now tillers of the soil. Their praise of 
their " boy General " made my grateful tears flow, and many 
of their eyes moistened as they held my hand and spoke of 
war times. After all had filed by, they began to return one 
by one and ask to bring their wives and children. One sol- 
dier, with already silvering head, said quaintly, " We have 
often seen you riding around with our General in war days," 
and added, with a most flattering ignoring of time's treat- 
ment of me, " You look just the same, though you was a 
young gal then; and now, tho' you followed your husband 
and took your hardships with us, I want to show you an old 
woman who was also a purty good soldier, for while I was 
away at the front she run the farm." Such a welcome, such 
honest tribute to his " old woman," recalled the times when 
the General's old soldiers gathered about him, with un- 
affected words, and when I pitied him because he fidgeted 
so, and bit his lips, and struggled to end what was the joy 
of his life, for fear he would cry like a woman. Among 
those who sought him out that summer was an officer who 
had commanded a regiment of troops in the celebrated Michi- 
gan brigade — Colonel George Grey, a brave Irishman, with 
as much enthusiasm in his friendships as in his fighting. 
His wife and little son were introduced. The boy had very 
light hair, and though taught to reverence and love the Gen- 
eral by his gallant, impulsive father, the child had never real- 
ized until he saw him that his father's hero also had a yellow 
head. Heretofore the boy had hated his hair, and implored 



ORDERS TO REPORT AT FORT RILEY. 20y 

his mother to dye it dark. But as soon as his interview with 
my husband was ended, he ran to his mother, and whispered 
in eager haste that she need not mind the dyeing now, he 
never would scold about his hair being light again, since he 
had seen that General Custer's was yellow. 

As I look back and consider what a descent the major- 
generals of the war made, on returning to their lineal rank in 
the regular army after the surrender at Appomattox, I wonder 
how they took the new order of things so calmly, or that they 
so readily adapted themselves to the positions they had filled 
before the firing on Sumter in 1861. General Custer held his 
commission as brevet major-general for nearly a year after 
the close of hostilities, and until relieved in Texas. He did 
not go at once to his regiment, the Fifth Cavalry, and take 
up the command of sixty men in place of thousands, as other 
officers of the regular army were obliged to do, but was 
placed on waiting orders, and recommended to the lieuten- 
ant-colonelcy of one of the new regiments of cavalry, for five 
new ones had been formed that summer, making ten in all. 
In the autumn, the appointment to the Seventh Cavalry came, 
with orders to go to Fort Garland. One would have imag- 
ined, by the jubilant manner in which this official document 
was unfolded and read to me, that it was the inheritance of 
a principality. My husband instantly began to go over the 
" good sides " of the question. He was so given to dwelling 
on the high lights of any picture his imagination painted, 
that the background, which might mean hardships and dep- 
rivations, became indefinite in outline, and obscure enough 
in detail to please the most modern impressionists. Out of 
our camp luggage a map was produced, and Fort Garland 
was discovered, after long prowling about with the first fin- 
ger, in the space given to the Rocky Mountains. Then he 
launched into visions of what unspeakable pleasure he would 
have, fishing for mountain trout and hunting deer. As I 
cared nothing for fishing, and was afraid of a gun, I don't 
recall my veins bounding as his did over the prospect; but 
the embryo fisherman and Nimrod was so sanguine over his 



208 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

future, it would have been a stolid soul indeed that did not 
begin to think Fort Garland a sort of earthly paradise. The 
sober colors in this vivid picture meant a small, obscure post, 
then several hundred miles from any railroad, not much more 
than a handful of men to command, the most complete iso- 
lation, and no prospect of an active campaign, as it was far 
from the range of the warlike Indians. But Fort Garland 
soon faded from our view, in the excitement and interest 
over Fort Riley, as soon as our orders were changed to that 
post. We had no difficulty in finding it on the map, as it 
was comparatively an old post, and the Kansas Pacific Rail- 
road was within ten miles of the Government reservation. 

We ascertained, by inquiry, that it was better to buy the 
necessary household articles at Leavenworth, than to attempt 
to carry along even a simple outfit from the East. My atten- 
tion had been so concentrated on the war, that I found the 
map of Virginia had heretofore comprised the only impor- 
tant part of the United States to me, and it was difficult to 
realize that Kansas had a city of 25,000 inhabitants, with 
several daily papers. Still, I was quite willing to trust to 
Leavenworth for the purchase of household furniture, as it 
seemed to me, what afterward proved true, that housekeep- 
ing in garrison quarters was a sort of camping out after all, 
with one foot in a house and another in position to put into 
the stirrup and spin "over the hills and far away." We 
packed the few traps that had been used in camping in Vir- 
ginia and Texas, but most of our attention was given to the 
selection of a pretty girl, who, it was held by both of us, 
would do more toward furnishing and beautifying our army 
quarters than any amount of speechless bric-a-brac or silent 
tapestry. It was difficult to obtain what seemed the one 
thing needful for our new army home. In the first place, the 
mothers rose en masse and formed themselves into an anti- 
frontier combination. They looked right into my eyes, with 
harassed expression, and said, "Why, Libbie. they might 
marry an officer! " ignoring the fact that the happiest girl 
among them had undergone that awful fate, and still laughed 



ORDERS TO REPORT AT FORT RILEY. 209 

back a denial of its being the bitterest lot that can come to a 
woman. Then I argued that perhaps their daughters might 
escape matrimony entirely, under the fearful circumstances 
which they shuddered over, even in contemplation, but that 
it was only fair that the girls should have a chance to see the 
"bravest and the tenderest," and, I mentally added, the 
" livest " men, for our town had been forsaken by most of the 
ambitious, energetic boys as soon as their school-days ended. 
The " beau season " was very brief, lasting only during their 
summer vacations, when they came from wide-awake Western 
towns to make love in sleepy Monroe. One mother at last 
listened to my arguments, and said, " I do want Laura to see 
what men of the world are, and she shall go." Now, this 
lovely mother had been almost a second one to me in all my 
lonely vacations, after my own mother died. She took me 
from the seminary, and gave me treats with her own children, 
and has influenced my whole life by her noble, large way of 
looking at the world. But, then, she has been East a great 
deal, and in Washington in President Pierce's days, and real- 
ized that the vision of the outside world, seen only from our 
Monroe, was narrow. The dear Laura surprised me by ask- 
ing to have over night to consider, and I could not account 
for it, as she had been so radiant over the prospect of military 
life. Alas! next morning the riddle was solved, when she 
whispered in my ear that there was a youth who had already 
taken into his hands the disposal of her future, and " he " 
objected. So we lost her. 

Monroe was then thought to have m'ore pretty girls than 
any place of its size in the country. In my first experience 
of the misery of being paragraphed, it was announced that 
General Custer had taken to himself a wife, in a town where 
ninety-nine marriageable girls were left. The fame of the 
town had gone abroad, though, and the ninety-nine were not 
without opportunities. Widowers came from afar, with 
avant couriers in the shape of letters describing their wealth, 
their scholarly attainments, and their position in the com- 
munity. The "boys " grown to men halted in their race for 



2IO TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

wealth long enough to rush home and propose. Often we 
were all under inspection, and though demure and seemingly 
unconscious, I remember the after-tea walks when a knot of 
girls went off to " lovers' lane " to exchange experiences about 
some stranger from afar, who had been brought around by a 
solicitous match-maker to view the landscape o'er, and I am 
afraid we had some sly little congratulations when he, hav- 
ing shown signs of the conquering hero, was finally sent on 
his way, to seek in other towns, filled with girls, " fresh 
woods and pastures new." I cannot account for the beauty 
of the women of Monroe; the mothers were the softest, 
serenest, smoothest-faced women, even when white-haired. 
It is true it was a very quiet life, going to bed with the chick- 
ens, and up early enough to see the dew on the lawns. 
There was very little care, to plant furrows in the cheeks and 
those tell-tale radiating lines about the eyes. Nearly every- 
body was above want, and few had enough of this world's 
goods to incite envy in the hearts of the neighbors, which 
does its share in a younger face. I sometimes think the 
vicinity of Lake Erie, and the moist air that blew over the 
marsh, kept the complexions fresh. I used to feel actually 
sorry for my husband, when we approached Monroe after 
coming from the campaigns. He often said: " Shall we not 
stop in Detroit a day or two, Libbie, till you get the tired 
look out of your face ? I dread going among the Monroe 
women and seeing them cast reproachful looks at me, when 
your sunburned face is introduced among their fair com- 
plexions. When you are tired in addition, they seem to 
think I am a wretch unhung, and say, ' Why, General! what 
have you done with Libbie's transparent skin ? ' I am afraid 
it is hopelessly dark and irredeemably thickened! " In vain 
I argued that it wouldn't be too thick to let them all see the 
happy light shine through, and if his affection survived my 
altered looks, I felt able to endure the wailing over what 
they thought I had lost. After all, it was very dear and kind 
of them to care, and my husband appreciated their solicitude, 
even when he was supposed to be in disgrace for having sub- 



ORDERS TO REPORT AT FORT RILEY. 211 

jected me to such disfigurement. Still, these mothers were 
neither going to run the risk of the peach-bloom and cream 
of their precious girls all running riot into one broad sun- 
barn up to the roots of the hair, and this was another rea- 
son, in addition to the paramount one that " the girls might 
marry into the army." The vagrant life, the inability to 
keep household gods, giving up the privileges of the church 
and missionary societies, the loss of the simple village gay- 
ety, the anxiety and suspense of a soldier's wife, might well 
make the mothers opposed to the life, but this latter reason 
did not enter into all their minds. Some thought of the 
loaves and fishes. One said, in trying to persuade me that 
it was better to break my engagement with the General, 
" Why, girl, you can't be a poor man's wife, and, besides, he 
might lose a leg! " 1 thought, even then, gay and seeming- 
ly thoughtless as I was, that a short life with poverty and a 
wooden leg was better than the career suggested to me. I 
hope the dear old lady is not blushing as she reads this, and 
I remind her how she took me up into a high mountain and 
pointed out a house that might be mine, with so many dozen 
spoons, " solid," so many sheets and pillow-slips, closets fill- 
ed with jars of preserved fruit, all of which I could not hope 
to have in the life in which I chose to cast my lot, where 
peaches ripened on no garden-wall and bank-accounts were 
unknown. 

When we were ready to set out for the West, in October, 
1866, our caravan summed up something like this list : 
My husband's three horses — Jack Rucker, the thoroughbred 
mare he had bought in Texas, a blooded colt from Virginia 
named Phil Sheridan — and my own horse, a fast pacer nam- 
ed Custis Lee, the delight of my eyes and the envy of the 
General's staff while we were in Virginia and Texas; several 
hounds given to the General by the planters with whom he 
had hunted deer in Texas; a superb greyhound, his head 
carried so loftily as he walked his lordly way among the other 
dogs, that I thought he would have asked to carry his family- 
tree on his brass collar, could .he have spoken for his rights. 



ORDERS TO REPORT AT FORT RILEY. 213 

Last of all, some one had given us the ugliest white bull-dog 
I ever saw. But in time we came to think that the twist in 
his lumpy tail, the curve in his bow legs, the ambitious nose, 
which drew the upper lip above the heaviest of protruding- 
jaws, were simply beauties, for the dog was so affectionate 
and loyal, that everything which at first seemed a draw-back 
leaned finally to virtue's side. He was well named " Turk," 
and a "set to" or so with Byron, the domineering grey- 
hound established his rights, so that it only needed a deep 
growl and an uprising of the bristles on his back, to recall to 
the overbearing aristocrat some wholesome lessons given 
him when the acquaintance began. Turk was devoted to the 
colt Phil, and the intimacy of the two was comical; Phil re- 
paid Turk's little playful nips at the legs by lifting him in his 
teeth as high as the feed-box, by the loose skin of his back. 
But nothing could get a whimper out of him, for he was the 
pluckiest of brutes. He curled himself up in Phil's stall when 
he slept, and in traveling was his close companion in the box 
car. If we took the dog to drive with us, he had to be in the 
buggy, as our time otherwise would have been constantly 
engaged in dragging him off from any dog that strutted 
around him and needed a lesson in humility. When Turk 
was returned to Phil, after any separation, they greeted each 
other in a most human way. Turk leaped around the colt, 
and in turn was rubbed and nosed about with speaking little 
snorts of welcome. When we came home to this ugly duck- 
ling, he usually made a spring and landed in my lap, as if he 
were the tiniest, silkiest little Skye in dogdom. He half 
closed his eyes, with that beatific expression peculiar to af- 
fectionate dogs, and did his little smile at my husband and 
me by raising what there was of his upper lip and showing 
his front teeth. All this with an ignoring of the other dogs 
and an air of exclusion, as if we three— his master, mistress, 
and himself— composed all there was of earth worth know- 
ing. 

We had two servants, one being Eliza, our faithful colored 
woman, who had been with us in Virginia and Texas, and 



214 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

had come home with me to care for my father in his last ill- 
ness. We had also a worthless colored boy, who had been 
trained as a jockey in Texas and had returned with the 
horses. What intellect he had was employed in devising 
schemes to escape work. Eliza used her utmost persuasive 
eloquence on him without effect, and failed equally with a 
set of invectives that had been known heretofore to break 
the most stubborn case of lethargy. My tender-hearted mo- 
ther Custer screened him, for he had soon discovered her 
amazing credulity, and had made out a story of abuses to 
which he had been subjected that moved her to confide his 
wrongs to me. Two years before, I too would have dropped 
a tear over his history; but a life among horses had enlighten- 
ed me somewhat. Every one knows that a negro will do al- 
most anything to become a jockey. Their bitterest moment 
is when they find that growing bone and muscle is making 
avoirdupois and going to cut them off from all that makes 
life worth living. To reduce their weight, so they can ride 
at races, they are steamed, and parboiled if necessary. This 
process our lazy servant described to our mother as having 
been enforced on him as a torture and punishment, and such 
a good story did he make out, that he did nothing but lie in 
the sun and twang an old banjo all summer long, all owing 
to mother's pity. We had to take him with us, to save her 
from waiting on him and making reparation for what she 
supposed had been a life of abuse before he came to us. 

Last of all to describe in our party was Diana, the pretty 
belle of Monroe. The excitement of anticipation gave added 
brightness to her eyes, and the head, sunning over with a 
hundred curls, danced and coquetted as she talked of our 
future among the "brass buttons and epaulets." 

My going out from home was not so hard as it had been, 
for the dear father had gone home, saying in his last words, 
" Daughter, continue to do as you have done; follow Arm- 
strong everywhere." It had indeed been a temptation to 
me to use all my influence to induce my husband to resign 
and accept the places held out to him. I do not recollect 



ORDERS TO REPORT AT FORT RILEY. 21 5 

that ambition or a far look into his progress in the future 
entered my mind. I can only remember thinking with envy 
of men surrounding us in civil life, who came home to their 
wives, after every day's business. Even now, I look upon a 
laborer returning to his home at night with his tin dinner- 
pail as a creature to be envied, and my imagination follows 
the husband into his humble house. The wife to whom he 
returns may have lost much that ambition and success bring, 
but she has secured for herself a lifetime of happy twilights, 
when all she cares for is safe under her affectionate eyes. 

Our father and mother Custer lived near us, and Sister 
Margaret and the younger brother, ''Bos," were then at 
home and in school. The parting with his mother, the only 
sad hour to my blithe husband, tore his heart as it always 
did, and he argued in vain with her, that, as he had come 
home after five years of incessant battles, she might look for 
his safe return again. Each time seemed to be the last to 
her, for she was so delicate she hardly expected to live to see 
him again. 

The summer had been one of such pleasure to her. Her 
beloved boy, dashing in and out in his restless manner, was 
never too absorbed with whatever took up his active mind, 
to be anything but gentle and thoughtful for her. She found 
our Eliza a mine of information, and just as willing as mother 
herself to talk all day about the one topic in common — the 
General and his war experiences. 

Then the dogs and horses, and the stir and life produced 
by the introduction of ourselves and our belongings into her 
quiet existence, made her recall the old farm life when her 
brood of children were all around her. Brother Tom had 
spent the summer skipping from flower to flower, tasting the 
sweets of all the rosebud garden of girls in our pretty town. 
I had already taken to myself a good deal of the mothering 
of this wild boy, and began to worry, as is the custom of 
mothers, over the advances of a venturesome woman who 
was no longer young and playing for high stakes. It was no 
small matter to me, as I knew Tom would live with us always 



2l6 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

if he could manage to do so, and my prospective sister-in-law 
would be my nearest companion. Lad as he was, he escaped, 
and preserved his heart in an unbroken condition during the 
summer. Much to our regret, he was appointed to a lieu- 
tenancy in a regiment stationed South, after he was mus- 
tered out of the volunteer service; but the General succeeded 
in effecting his transfer to the Seventh Cavalry, and after a 
short service in the South he joined us at Fort Riley that 
year. 

One of our Detroit friends invited us to go with a party of 
pretty women, in a special car, to St. Louis; so we had a gay 
send-off for our new home. I don't remember to have had 
an anxiety as to the fnture; I was wholly given over to the 
joy of realizing that the war was over, and, girl-like, now the 
one great danger was passed, I felt as if all that sort of life 
was forever ended. At any rate, the magnetic influence of 
my husband's joyous temperament, which would not look on 
the dark side, had such power over those around him that I 
was impelled to look upon our future as he did. In St. Louis 
we had a round of gayety. The great Fair was then at its 
best, for every one was making haste to dispel the gloom 
that our terrible war had cast over the land. There was not 
a corner of the Fair-ground to which my husband did not 
penetrate. He took me into all sorts of places to which our 
pretty galaxy of belles, with their new conquests of St. Louis 
beaux, had no interest in going — the stalls of the thorough- 
bred horses — when a chat with the jockeys was included; the 
cattle, costing per head what, we whispered to each other, 
would set us up in a handsome income for life and buy a 
Blue-grass farm with blooded horses, etc., which was my hus- 
band's ideal home. And yet I do not remember that money 
ever dwelt very long in our minds, we learned to have such a 
royal time on so little. 

There was something that always came before the Ken- 
tucky farm with its thoroughbreds. If ever he said, "If 
I get rich, I'll tell you what I'll do," I knew as well before 
he spoke just what was to follow — in all the twelve years he 



ORDERS TO REPORT AT FORT RILEY. 2\J 

never altered the first plan—" I'll buy a home for father and 
mother." They owned their home in Monroe then, but it 
was not good enough to please him ; nothing was good 
enough for his mother, but the dear woman, with her simple 
tastes, would have felt far from contented in the sort of 
home in which her son longed to place her. All she asked 
was to gather her boys around her so that she could see them 
every day. 

As we wandered round the Fair-grounds, side-shows with 
their monstrosities came into the General's programme, and 
the prize pigs were never neglected. If we bent over the 
pens to see the huge things rolling in lazy contentment, my 
husband went back to his farm days, and explained what 
taught him to like swine, in which, I admit, I could not be 
especially interested. His father had given each son a pig, 
with the promise exacted in return that they should be daily 
washed and combed. When the General described the pink 
and white collection of pets that his father distributed among 
his sons, swine were no longer swine to me; they were " curled 
darlings," as he pictured them. And now I recall, that long 
after he showed such true appreciation of his friend's stock 
on one of the Blue-grass farms in Kentucky where we visited, 
two pigs of royal birth, whose ancestors dated back many 
generations, were given to us, and we sent them home to our 
farmer brother to keep until we should possess a place of our 
own, which was one of the mild indulgences of our imagina- 
tion, and which we hoped would be the diversion of our old 
age. I think it rather strange that my husband looked so 
fearlessly into the future. I hardly know how one so active 
could so calmly contemplate the days when his steps would 
be slow. We never passed on the street an old man with gray 
curls lying over his coat-collar, but the General slackened his 
steps to say in a whisper, "There, Libbie, that's me, forty 
years from now." And if there happened to be John Ander- 
son's obese old wife by him, toddling painfully along, red and 
out of breath, he teasingly added, "And that's what you 
would like to be." It was a never-ending source of argument 



218 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

that I would be much more successful in the way of looks if 
I were not so slender; and as my husband, even when a lad, 
liked women who were slenderly formed, he loved to torment 
me, by pointing out to what awful proportions a woman 
weighing what was to me a requisite number of pounds some- 
times arrived in old age. 

A tournament was given in the great amphitheatre of the 
Fair building in St. Louis, which was simply delightful to us. 
The horsemanship so pleased my husband that he longed to 
bound down into the arena, take a horse, and tilt with their 
long lances at the rings. Some of the Confederate officers 
rode for the prizes, and their knights' costume and good 
horses were objects of momentary envy, as they recalled the 
riding academy exercises at West Point. Finally, the pretty 
ceremony of crowning the Queen of Love and Beauty by the 
successful knight ended a real gala day to us. At night a 
ball at the hotel gave us an opportunity to be introduced to 
the beautiful woman, who sat on a temporary throne in the 
dancing-hall, and we thought her well worth tilting lances 
for, and that nothing could encourage good horsemanship 
like giving as a prize the temporary possession of a pretty 
girl. 

While in St. Louis we heard Mr. Lawrence Barrett for the 
first time. He was of nearly the same age as my husband, 
and after three years' soldiering in our war, as a captain in 
the Twenty-eighth Massachusetts Infantry, had returned to 
his profession, full of ambition and the sort of "go" that 
called out instant recognition from the General. 

Mr. Barrett, in recalling lately the first time he met Gen- 
eral Custer, spoke of the embarrassing predicament in which 
he was placed by the impetuous determination of one whom 
from that hour he cherished as his warmest friend. He was 
playing " Rosedale," and my husband was charmed with his 
rendering of the hero's part. He recalled for years the delicate 
manner with which the lover allows his wounded hand to be 
bound, and the subtle cunning with which he keeps the fair 
minister of his hurts winding and unwinding the bandages. 



ORDERS TO REPORT AT FORT RILEY. 219 

Then Mr. Barrett sang a song in the play, which the Gen- 
eral hummed for years afterward. I remember his going pell- 
mell into the subject whenever we met, even when Mr. Bar- 
rett was justifiably glowing with pride over his success in the 
legitimate drama, and interrupting him to ask why he no 
longer played " Rosedale." The invariable answer that the 
play required extreme youth in the hero, had no sort of power 
to stop the continued demand for his favorite melodrama. 
After we had seen the play — it was then acted for the first 
time — the General begged me to wait in the lobby until he 
had sought out Mr. Barrett to thank him, and on our return 
from the theatre we lay in wait, knowing that he stopped at 
our hotel. As he was going quietly to his room — reserved 
even then, boy that he was, with not a trace of the impetu- 
ous, ardent lover he had so lately represented before the foot- 
lights — off raced the General up the stairs, two steps at a 
time, to capture him. He demurred, saying his rough trav- 
eling suit of gray was hardly presentable in a drawing-room, 
but the General persisted, saying, " The old lady told me I 
must seize you, and go you must, for I don't propose to re- 
turn without fulfilling her orders." Mr. Barrett submitted, 
and was presented to our party, who had accompanied us on 
the special car to St. Louis. The gray clothes were forgotten 
in a moment, in the reception we gave him; but music came 
out from the dining-room, and all rose to go, as Mr. Barrett 
supposed, to our rooms. The General took a lady on his arm, 
I, at my husband's suggestion, put my hand on Mr. Barrett's 
arm, and before he had realized it, he was being marched 
into the brilliantly lighted ballroom, and bowing from force 
of capture before the dais on which sat the Queen of Love 
and Beauty. 

All this delighted the General. Unconventional himself, 
he nothing heeded the chagrin of Mr. Barrett over his inap- 
propriate garb, and chuckled like a schoolboy over his suc- 
cessful raid. I think Mr. Barrett was not released until he 
pleaded the necessity for time to work. He was then reading 
and studying far into the night, to make up for the lapse in 



220 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

his profession that his army life had caused. He was not so 
absorbed in his literary pursuits, however, that he did not 
take in the charm of those beautitul St. Louis girls, and we 
three, in many a jolly evening since, have gone back to the 
beauty of the bewitching belles, as they floated by us in that 
ballroom or paused to capture the new Richmonds on their 
already crowded field. Mr. Barrett even remembers that the 
Queen of Love and Beauty vouchsafed him the eighth of a 
dance — for her royal highness dispensed favors by piecemeal 
to the waiting throng about her throne. 

Our roving life brought us in contact with actors frequent- 
ly. If the General found that Mr. Barrett was to play in any 
accessible city, he hurried me into my traveling-gown, flung 
his own dress-coat and my best bonnet in a crumpled mass 
into a little trunk, and off we started in pursuit. It is hard 
to speak fittingly of the meeting of those two men. They joy- 
ed in each other as women do, and I tried not to look when 
they met or parted, while they gazed with tears into each 
other's eyes, and held hands like exuberant girls. Each kept 
track of the other's movements, through the papers, and re- 
joiced at every success, while Mr. Barrett, with the voice 
my husband thought perfect in intonation and expression, 
always called to him the moment they met, " Well, old fellow, 
hard at work making history, are you ? " 

A few evenings since 1 chanced to see Mr. Barrett's dresser, 
the Irish " Garry," who had charge of his costumes in those 
days when the General used to haunt the dressing-room in 
the last winter we were together in New York. As Cassins 
he entered the room in armor, and found his " old man Cus- 
ter " waiting for him. Garry tells me that my husband leap- 
ed toward the mailed and helmeted soldier, and gave him 
some rousing bangs on the corseleted chest, for they sparred 
like boys. Mr. Barrett, parrying the thrust, said, " Custer, old 
man, you ought to have one of these suits of armor for your 
work." "Ye gods, no ! " said the General, in mimic alarm; 
"with that glistening breast-plate as a target, every arrow 
would be directed at me. I'd rather go naked than in that ! " 




KANSAS IN 1866 AND KANSAS TO-DAY. 

In 1866 there were three hundred miles of railroad; in 1886, six thousand one 

hundred and forty-four. 



CHAPTER XII. 

WESTWARD HO !— FIGHTING DISSIPATION IN THE SEVENTH 
CAVALRY— GENERAL CUSTER'S TEMPTATIONS. 

The junketing and frolic at St. Louis came to an end in a 
few days, and our faces were again turned westward to a life 
about as different from the glitter and show of a gay city in a 
holiday week as can be imagined. Leavenworth was our 
first halt, and its well-built streets and excellent stores sur- 
prised us. It had long been the outfitting place for our offi- 
cers. The soldiers drew supplies from the military post, and 
the officers furnished themselves with camp equipage from 
the city. Here also they bought condemned ambulances, 
and put them in order for traveling-carriages for their fami- 
lies. I remember getting a faint glimmer of the climate we 
were about to endure, by seeing a wagon floored, and its 
sides lined with canvas, which was stuffed to keep out the 
cold, while a little sheet-iron stove was firmly fixed at one 
end, with a bit of miniature pipe protruding through the 
roof. The journey from Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fe, New 
Mexico, then took six weeks. Everything was transported in 
the great army wagons called prairie-schooners. These were 
well named, as the two ends of the wagon inclined upward, 
like the bow and stern of a fore-and-after. It is hard to real- 
ize how strangely a long train of supplies for one of the dis- 
tant posts looked, as it wound slowly over the plains. The 
blue wagon-beds, with white canvas covers rising up ever so 
high, disclosed, in the small circle where they were drawn 
together at the back, all kinds of material for the clothing 
and feeding of the army in the distant Territories. The num- 
ber of mules to a wagon varies; sometimes there are four, 



224 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

and again six. The driver rides the near-wheel mule. He 
holds in his hand a broad piece of leather, an inch and a half 
in width, which divides over the shoulders of the lead or pilot 
mule, and fastens to the bit on either side of his mouth. 
The leaders are widely separated. A small hickory stick, 
about five feet long, called the jockey-stick, not unlike a 
rake-handle, is stretched between a pilot and his mate. This 
has a little chain at either end, and is attached by a snap or 
hook to the bit of. the other leader. 

When the driver gives one pull on the heavy strap, the 
pilot mule veers to the left, and pulls his mate. Two quick, 
sudden jerks mean to the right,, and he responds, and pushes 
his companion accordingly; and in this simple manner the 
ponderous vehicle and all the six animals are guided. . . . 
The most spirited mules are selected from the train for lead- 
ers. They cannot be reached by the whip, and the driver 
must rely upon the emphasis he puts into his voice to incite 
them to effort. They know their names, and I have seen 
them respond to a call, even when not accompanied by the 
expletives that seem to be composed especially for this 
branch of charioteering. The driver of our mules naturally 
suppressed his invectives in my presence. The most profane 
soldier holds his tongue in a vise when he is in the presence 
of a woman, but he is sorely put to it to find a substitute for 
the only language he considers a mule will heed. I have 
seen our driver shake his head and move his jaws in an omi- 
nous manner, when the provoking leaders took a skittish leap 
on one side of the trail, or turned round and faced him with 
a protest against further progress. They were sometimes so 
afraid of buffalo, and always of Indians, they became rebel- 
lious to such a degree he was at his wits' end to get any 
further go out of them. It was in vain he called out, " You 
Bet, there !" "What are you about, Sal?" He plainly 
showed and said that he found " such 'ere tongue-lashing 
wouldn't work worth a rap with them vicious creeturs." 

The driver, if he is not a stolid Mexican, takes much pride 
in his mules. By some unknown means, poor as he is, he 



WESTWARD HO ! 225 

possesses himself of fox or small coyote tails, which he fast- 
ens to their bridle, and the vagaries in the clipping of the 
poor beasts' tails, would set the fashion to a Paris hair-dresser. 
They are shaved a certain distance, and then a tuft is left, 
making a bushy ring. This is done twice, if Bet or Sal is 
vouchsafed an appendage long enough to admit of it; while 
the tuft on the end, though of little use to intimidate flies, is 
a marvel of mule-dudism. The coats of the beasts, so valued 
sometimes, shine like the fine hair of a good horse. Alas ! 
not when, in the final stages of a long march, the jaded, 
half-starved beasts dragged themselves over the trail. Driver 
and lead mules even, lose ambition under the scorching sun, 
and with the insufficient food and long water famines. 

The old reliability of a mule-team is the off-wheeler. It is 
his leathery sides that can be most readily reached by the 
whip called a " black-snake," and when the descent is made 
into a stream with muddy bed, the cut is given to this faith- 
ful beast, and on his powerful muscles depends the wrench 
that jerks the old schooner out of a slough. The nigh or sad- 
dle mule does his part in such an emergency, but he soon 
reasons that, because he carries the driver, not much more 
is expected of him. 

The General and I took great interest in the names given 
to the animals that pulled our traveling-wagon or hauled the 
supplies. As we rode by, the voice of the driver bringing out 
the name he had chosen, and sometimes affectionately, made 
us sure that the woman for whom the beast was christened 
was the sweetheart of the apparently prosaic teamster. I 
was avowedly romantic, and the General was equally so, 
though, after the fashion of men, he did not proclaim it. 
Our place at the head of the column was sometimes vacant, 
either because we were delayed for our luncheon, or because 
my husband remained behind to help the quartermaster or the 
head teamster get the train over a stream. It was then that 
we had the advantage of hearing the names conferred on 
the mules. They took in a wide range of female nomencla- 
ture, and we found it great fun to watch the family life of 



226 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

one human being and his six beasts. My husband had the ut- 
most respect for a mule's sense. When I looked upon them 
as dull, half-alive animals, he bade me watch how deceitful 
were appearances, as they showed such cunning, and evinced 
the wisdom of a quick-witted thoroughbred, when apparent- 
ly they were unobserving, sleepy brutes. It was the General 
who made me notice the skill and rapidity with which a 
group of six mules would straighten out what seemed to be a 
hopeless tangle of chains and harness, into which they had 
kicked themselves when there was a disturbance among them. 
One crack of the whip from the driver who had tethered 
them after a march, accompanied by a plain statement of his 
opinion of such "fools," would send the whole collection 
wide apart, and it was but a twinkling before they extricated 
themselves from what I thought a hopeless mess. No chains 
or straps were broken, and a meek, subdued look pervading 
the group left not a trace of the active heels that a moment 
before had filled the air. " There," the General used to say, 
" don't ever flatter yourself again that a mule hasn't sense. 
He's got more wisdom than half the horses in the line." It 
took a good while to convince me, as a more logy-looking 
animal can hardly be found than the army mule, which 
never in his existence is expected to go off from a walk, or 
to vary his life, from the day he is first harnessed until he 
drops by the way, old or exhausted. 

At the time we were first on the Plains, many of the 
teamsters were Mexicans, short, swarthy, dull, and hardly a 
grade above the animal. The only ambition of these crea- 
tures seemed to be to vie with one another as to who could 
snap the huge " black-snake " the loudest. They learned to 
whisk the thong at the end around the ears of a shirking off 
leader, and crack the lash with such an explosive sound that 
I never got over jumping in my whole Plains life. I am sorry 
to say my high-strung horse usually responded with a spring 
that sent me into thin air anywhere between his ears and his 
tail, with a good deal of uncertainty as to where I should alight. 
I suspect it was an innocent little amusement of the drivers, 



WESTWARD HO ! 22/ 

when occasionally we remained behind at nooning, and had 
to ride swiftly by the long train to reach the head of the column. 
The prairie-schooner disappeared with the advancing rail- 
road ; but I am glad to see that General Meigs has perpetu- 
ated its memory, by causing this old means of transportation 
to be made one of the designs in the beautiful frieze carved 
around the outside of the Pension Office at Washington. 
Ungainly and cumbersome as these wagons were, they merit 
some such monument, as part of the history of the early days 
of frontier life in our country. We were in the West several 
years before the railroad was completed to Denver, and the 
overland trains became an every-day sight to us. Citizens 
used oxen a great deal for transportation, and there is no 
picture that represents the weariness and laggard progress of 
life like an ox-train bound for Santa Fe or Denver. The 
prairie-schooner might set out freshly painted, or perhaps 
washed in a creek, but it soon became gray with layer upon 
layer of alkali dust. The oxen — well, nothing save a snail 
can move more slowly, and the exhaustion of these beasts, 
after weeks of uninterrupted travel, was pitiful. Imagine, 
also, the unending vigil when the trains were insecurely 
guarded ; for in those days there was an immense unprotected 
frontier, and seemingly only a handful of cavalry. The regi- 
ments looked well on the roster, but there were in reality but 
few men. A regiment should number twelve hundred en- 
listed men ; but at no time, unless during the war, does the 
recruiting officer attempt to fill it to the maximum ; seventy 
men to a company is a large number. The desertions during 
the first years of the reorganization of the army after the 
war thinned the ranks constantly. Recruits could not be 
sent out fast enough to fill up the companies. The conse- 
quence was, that all those many hundred miles of trail where 
the Government undertook to protect citizens who carried 
supplies to settlements and the mines, as well as its own trains 
of material for building new posts, and commissary and 
quartermaster's stores for troops, were terribly exposed and 
very poorly protected. 



228 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

"The Indians were, unfortunately, located on the great 
highway of Western travel ; and commerce, not less than 
emigration, demanded their removal." There are many 
conflicting opinions as to the course pursued to clear the way ; 
but I only wish to speak now of the impression the trains 
made upon me, as we constantly saw the long, dusty, ex- 
hausted-looking column wending its serpentine way over the 
sun-baked earth. A group of cavalry, with their drooping 
horses, rode in front and at the rear. The wagon-master was 
usually the very quintessence of valor, It is true he formed 
such a habit of shooting that he grew indiscriminate, and 
should any of the lawless desperadoes whom he hired as 
teamsters or trainmen ruffle his blood, kept up to boiling- 
heat by suspense, physical exposure, and exasperating em- 
ployees, he knew no way of settling troubles except the 
effectual quietus that a bullet secures. I well remember my 
husband and Tom, who dearly loved to raise my indignation, 
and create signs of horror and detestation at their tales, 
walking me down to the Government train to see a wagon- 
master who had shot five men. He had emigrated from the 
spot where he bade fair to establish a private cemetery with 
his victims. No one needed a reason for his sudden appear- 
ance after the number of his slain was known. And yet no 
questions were put as to his past. He made a capital wagon- 
master ; he was obedient to his superiors, faithful, and on 
time every morning, and the prestige of his past record an- 
swered so well with the citizen employees, that his pistol re- 
mained unused in the holster. 

It seemed to be expected that the train-master would be a 
villain. Whatever was their record as to the manner of ar- 
ranging private disputes, a braver class of men never followed 
a trail, and some of them were far superior to their chance 
lot. Their tender care of women who crossed in these slow- 
moving ox-trains, to join their husbands, ought to be com- 
memorated. I have somewhere read one of their remarks 
when a girl, going to her mother, had been secreted in a 
private wagon and there was no knowledge of her presence 



WESTWARD HO! 229 

until the Indians were discovered to be near. "Tain't no 
time to be teamin' women folks over the trail with sech a 
fearsom sperit for Injuns as I be." He, like some of the 
bravest men I have known, spoke of himself as timid, while 
he knew no fear. It certainly unnerved the most valiant 
man when Indians were lurking near, to realize the fate that 
hung over women entrusted to their care. In a later portion 
of my story occurs an instance of an officer hiding the woman 
whose husband had asked him to take her into the States, 
even before firing a shot at the adversary, as he knew with 
what redoubled ferocity the savage would fight, at sight of 
the white face of a woman. It makes the heart beat, even 
to look at a picture of the old mode of traversing the high- 
way of Western travel. The sight of the pictured train, 
seemingly so peacefully lumbering on its sleepy way, the 
scarcely revolving wheels, creaking out a protest against even 
that effort, recalls the agony, the suspense, the horror with 
which every inch of that long route has been made. The 
heaps of stones by the wayside, or the buffalo bones, collected 
to mark the spot where some man fell from an Indian arrow, 
are now disappearing. The hurricanes beating upon the 
hastily prepared memorials have scattered the bleached bones 
of the bison, and rolled into the tufted grass the few stones 
with which the train-mert, at risk of their own lives, have de- 
layed long enough to mark their comrade's grave. 

The faded photographs or the old prints of those overland 
trains speak to me but one story. Instantly I recall the 
hourly vigilance, the restless eyes scanning the horizon, the 
breathless suspense, when the pioneers or soldiers knew from 
unmistakable signs that the Indian was lying in wait. In 
what contrast to the dull, logy, scarcely moving oxen were 
these keen-eyed heroes, with every nerve strained, every 
sense on the alert. And how they were maddened by the 
fate that consigned them, at such moments, to the mercy of 
"dull, driven cattle." When I have seen officers and soldiers 
lay their hands lovingly on the neck of their favorite horse, 
and perhaps, when no one was near to scoff at sentiment, 



23O TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

say to me, " He saved my life," I knew well what a man felt 
when his horse took fire at knowledge of danger to his rider 
and sped on the wings of the wind, till he was lost to his pur- 
suers, a tiny black speck on the horizon. The pathos of a 
soldier's parting with his horse moved us to quick sympathy. 
It often happens that a trooper retains the same animal 
through his entire enlistment, and it comes to be his most 
intimate friend. There is nothing he will not do to provide 
him with food ; if the forage runs low or the grazing is in- 
sufficient, stealing for his horse is reckoned a virtue among 
soldiers. Imagine, then, the anxiety, the real suffering, with 
which a soldier watches his faithful beast growing weaker day 
by day, from exhaustion or partial starvation. He walks be- 
side him to spare his strength, and finally, when it is no 
longer possible to keep up with the column, and the soldier 
knows how fatal the least delay may be in an Indian coun- 
try, it is more pitiful than almost any sight I recall, the sad- 
ness of his departure from the skeleton, whose eyes follow his 
master in wondering affection, as he walks away with the 
saddle and accoutrements. It is the most merciful farewell 
if a bullet is lodged in the brain of the famished or exhausted 
beast, but some one else than his sorrowing master has to 
do the trying deed. 

This is not the last act in the harrowing scene. The sol- 
dier overtakes the column, loaded down with his saddle, if 
the train is too far away to deposit it in the company wagon. 
Then begins a tirade of annoying comments to this man, still 
grieving over the parting with his best friend. No one can 
conceive what sarcasm and wit can proceed from a column 
of cavalry. Many of the men are Irish, and their reputation 
for humor is world-wide. " Hullo, there ! joined the doe- 
boys, eh?" " How do you like hoofing it?" are tame speci- 
mens of the remarks from these tormenting tongues ; such a 
fusillade of sneers is followed not long after by perhaps the 
one most gibing of all flinging himself off from his horse, 
and giving his mount to the one he has done his best to stir 
into wrath. A cavalryman hates, beyond any telling, en- 



WESTWARD HO! 23 1 

forced pedestrianism, and " Share and share alike " is a motto 
that our Western soldiers keep in use. 

If the wagons held merchandise only, by which the pioneer 
hoped to grow rich, the risk and suspense attending these 
endless marches were not worth commemorating ; but the 
bulk of the freight was the actual necessities of life. Con- 
ceive, if you can, how these brave men felt themselves chain- 
ed, as they drove or guarded the food for those living far in 
advance. There were not enough to admit of a charge on the 
enemy, and the defensive is an exasperating position for a 
soldier or frontiersman. He longs to advance on the foe ; 
but no such privilege was allowed them, for in these toilsome 
journeys they had often to use precautions to hide themselves. 
If Indians were discovered to be roaming near, the camp was 
established, trains corralled, animals secured inside a tempo- 
rary stockade ; the fires for coffee were forbidden, for smoke 
rises like a funnel, and hangs out an instant signal in that 
clear air. Even the consoling pipe was smoked under a 
sage-bush or in a hollow, if there happened to be a depression 
of the ground. Few words were spoken, the loud oaths sank 
into low mutterings, and the bray of a hungry mule, the 
clank of wagon-chains, or the stamping of cattle on the baked 
earth, sounded like thunder in the ears of the anxious, ex- 
pectant men. 

Fortunately, our journey in these trains was not at once 
forced upon us at Leavenworth. The Kansas Pacific Rail- 
road, projected to Denver, was built within ten miles of Fort 
Riley, and it was to be the future duty of the Seventh Cav- 
alry to guard the engineers in building the remainder of the 
road out to the Rocky Mountains. It did not take us long 
to purchase an outfit in the shops, for, as usual, our finances 
were low, and consequently our wants were curtailed. We 
had the sense to listen to a hint from some practical officer 
who had been far beyond railroads, and buy a cook-stove the 
first thing, and this proved to be the most important of our 
possessions when we reached our post, so far from the land 
of shops. Not many hours after we left Leavenworth, the 



232 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

settlements became farther and farther apart, and we began 
to realize that we were actual pioneers. Kansas City was 
then but a small town, seemingly with a hopeless future, as 
the bluffs rose so steeply from the river, and even when the 
summit was reached, the ups and downs of the streets were 
discouraging. It seemed, then, as if it would never be worth 
while to use it as a site for a town; there would be a lifetime 
of grading. It is very easy to become a city forefather in 
such a town, for in the twenty-one years since then, it has 
grown into a city of over 132,000 inhabitants — but they are 
still grading. The lots which we could have had almost for 
the asking, sell now for $1,000 a front foot. Topeka, the 
capital, showed no evidence of its importance, except the lit- 
tle circle of stars that surrounded it on our atlas. There 
were but three towns beyond Fort Riley then, and those were 
built, if I may so express it, of canvas and dug-outs. 

Our railroad journey came to an end about ten miles from 
Fort Riley. The laborers were laying track from that point. 
It had been a sort of gala day, for General Sherman, on one 
of his tours of inspection of the frontier posts, had been 
asked by railroad officials to drive the final spike of the di- 
vision of the road then finished. We found a wagon waiting 
for our luggage, and an ambulance to carry us the rest of the 
journey. These vehicles are not uncomfortable when the 
long seats on either side are so arranged that they make a 
bed for the ill or wounded by spreading them out, but as 
traveling conveyances I could not call them a success. The 
seats are narrow, with no back to speak of, and covered with 
carriage-cloth, which can keep you occupied, if the country 
is rough, in regaining the slippery surface for any number of 
miles at a stretch. Fort Riley came in sight when we were 
pretty well tired out. It was my first view of a frontier post. 
I had either been afraid to confess my ignorance, or so as- 
sured there was but one variety of fort, and the subject needed no 
investigation, that Fort Riley came upon me as a great surprise. 
I supposed, of course, it would be exactly like Fortress Mon- 
roe, with stone walls, turrets for the sentinels, and a deep 



WESTWARD HO ! 233 

moat. As I had heard more and more about Indians since 
reaching Kansas, a vision of the enclosure where we would 
eventually live was a great comfort to me. I could scarcely 
believe that the buildings, a story and a half high, placed 
around a parade-ground, were all there was of Fort Riley. 
The sutler's store, the quartermaster and commissary store- 
houses, and the stables for the cavalry horses, were outside 
the square, near the post, and that was all. No trees, and 
hardly any signs of vegetation except the buffalo-grass that 
curled its sweet blades close to the ground, as if to protect 
the nourishment it held from the blazing sun. The post was 
beautifully situated on a wide plateau, at the junction of the 
Republican and Smoky Hill rivers. The Plains, as they 
waved away on all sides of us, like the surface of a vast ocean, 
had the charm of great novelty, and the absence of trees was 
at first forgotten in the fascination of seeing such an im- 
mense stretch of country, with the soft undulations of green 
turf rolling on, seemingly, to the setting sun. The eye was 
relieved by the fringe of cottonwood that bordered the 
rivers below us. 

Though we came afterward to know, on toilsome marches un- 
der the sweltering sun, when that orb was sometimes not even 
hidden for one moment in the day by a grateful cloud, but the 
sky was spread over as a vast canopy of dazzling blue, that 
enthusiasm would not outlast such trials, still, a rarely exult- 
ant feeling takes possession of one in the gallops over the 
Plains, when in early spring they are a trackless sea of soft 
verdure. And the enthusiasm returns when the campaign 
for the summer is over, and riding is taken up for pleasure. 
My husband was full of delight over the exquisite haze that 
covered the land with a faint purple light, and exclaimed, 
"Now I begin to realize what all that transparent veil of 
faint color means in Bierstadt's paintings of the Rocky 
Mountains and the West." But we had little time to take 
in atmospheric effects, as evening was coming on and we were 
yet to be housed, while servants, horses, dogs and all of us 
were hungry after our long drive. The General halted the 



234 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

wagon outside the post, and left us to go and report to the 
commanding officer. 

At that time I knew nothing of the hospitality of a frontier 
post, and I begged to remain in the wagon until our quarters 
were assigned us in the garrison. Up to this time we had 
all been in splendid spirits; the novelty, the lovely day and 
exhilarating air, and all the possibilities of a future with a 
house of our own, or, rather, one lent to us by Uncle Sam, 
seemed to fill up a delightful cup to the brim. We sat out- 
side the post so long — at least it seemed so to us — and grew 
hungrier and thirstier, that there were evident signs of mu- 
tiny. The truth is, whenever the General was with us, with 
his determination of thinking that nothing could exceed his 
surroundings, it was almost impossible to look upon anything 
except in the light that he did. He gave color to everything, 
with his hopeful views. Eliza sat on the seat with the driver, 
and both muttered occasional hungry words, but our Diana 
and I had the worst of it. We had bumped over the coun- 
try, sometimes violently jammed against the framework of 
the canvas cover, and most of the time sliding off from the 
slippery cushions upon the insulted dogs — for of course the 
General had begged a place for two of them. He had kept 
them in order all the way from the termination of the rail- 
road; but now that he was absent, Turk and Byron renewed 
hostilities, and in the narrow space they scrambled and 
snarled and sprang at each other. When the General came 
back he found the little hands of our curly-headed girl 
clenched over the collar of Byron at one end of the ambu- 
lance, while Turk sat on my lap, swelling with rage because 
my fingers were twisted in the chain that held him, as I sat 
at the door shaking with terror. It was quick work to jerk 
the burly brute out of the door, and end our troubles for the 
time; but the General, after quieting our panic, threw us into 
a new one by saying we must make up our minds to be the 
guests of the commanding officer. Tired, travel-stained, and 
unaccustomed to what afterward became comparatively easy, 
we were driven to one of the quarters and made our entrance 



WESTWARD HO! 235 

among strangers. I then realized, for the first time, that we 
had reached a spot where the comforts of life could not be 
had for love or money. 

It is a strange sensation to arrive at a place where money 
is of little use in providing shelter, and here we were beyond 
even the commonest railroad hotel. Mrs. Gibbs, who re- 
ceived us, was put to a severe test that night. Already a 
room in her small house had been prepared for General Sher- 
man, who had arrived earlier in the day, and now there were 
five of us bearing down upon her. I told her how I had 
begged to be allowed to go into quarters, even though there 
were no preparations, not even a fireplace where Eliza could 
have cooked us food enough over the coals to stay hunger; 
but she assured me that, having been on the Plains before the 
war, she was quite accustomed to a state of affairs where 
there was nothing to do but quarter yourself upon strangers; 
and then gave up her own room to our use. From that 
night — which was a real trial to me, because I felt so keenly 
the trouble we caused them all — dates the beginning of a 
friendship that has lasted through the darkest as well as the 
brightest hours of my life. I used to try to remember after- 
ward, when for nine years we received and entertained 
strangers who had nowhere else to go, the example of undis- 
turbed hospitality shown me by my first friend on the frontier. 

The next day my husband assumed command of the garri- 
son, and our few effects were moved into a large double 
house built for the commanding officer. There were parlors 
on one side, whose huge folding doors were flung open, and 
made our few articles of furniture look lonely and meagre. 
We had but six wooden chairs to begin with, and when, a 
few miles more of the railroad being completed, a party of 
one hundred and fifty excursionists arrived, I seated six of 
them — yes, seven, for one was tired enough to sit on a trunk 
—and then concluded I would own up that in the larger 
rooms of the house, into which they looked significantly, 
there were no more chairs concealed. I had done my best, 
and tried to make up for not seating or feeding them, by very 



236 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

busy talking. Meanwhile there were incessant inquiries for 
the General. It seems that he had begun that little trick of 
hiding from strangers, even then. He had seen the advanc- 
ing column of tourists, and fled. One of the servants finally 
unearthed him, and after they had gone and he found that I 
had been so troubled to think I could do nothing for the 
citizens, and so worried because he was non est, he did not 
leave me in such strait again until I had learned to adapt my- 
self to the customs of the country where the maxim that 
" every man's house is his castle " is a fallacy. 

The officers who had garrisoned the post began to move 
out as our own Seventh Cavalry officers reported for duty. 
The colonel of the regiment arrived, and ranked us out of our 
quarters, in this instance much to our relief, as the barrack of 
a building would never fill up from the slow rate at which our 
belongings increased. This army regulation, to which I have 
elsewhere referred, was then new to me. The manner in 
which the Government sees fit to arrange quarters is still 
amusing to me, but I suppose no better plan has ever been 
thought out. In the beginning of a well-built post, there is 
but little choice. It is the aim to make the houses, except 
that of the commanding officer, exactly alike. From time to 
time new quarters are built. The original plan is not follow- 
ed; possibly a few improvements are added to the newer 
houses. Ah! then the disturbance ensues! Fort Vancouver, 
in Washington Territory, is one of the old posts, quite inter- 
esting from the heterogeneous collection of quarters added 
through fifty years. I was spending a day or two, in 1875, 
with my husband's niece, whose husband was some distance 
down on the list, and consequently occupied a low log build- 
ing, that dated back no one knows how far. Even in that 
little cabin they were insecure, for in reply to my question, 
" Surely you are permanently fixed, and won't be moved," 
they pathetically answered: "Not by any means! We live 
from hour to hour in uncertainty, and there are worse quar- 
ters than these, which we walk by daily with dread, as 

ranks us, and he is going to be married, so out we go! " 



WESTWARD HO! 237 

Assigning quarters according to rank goes on smoothly for 
a time, but occasionally an officer reports for duty who ranks 
everyone. Not long ago this happened at a distant post, and 
the whole line went down like a row of bricks, as eight 
officers' families were ousted by his arrival, the lowest in rank 
having to move out one of the non-commissioned officers who 
had lived in a little cabin with two rooms. If possible, in 
choosing a time to visit our frontier posts, let this climax of 
affairs be avoided. Where there is little to vary life the 
monotony is apt to be deeply stirred by private rages, which 
would blow away in smoke if there was anything else to think 
of. It is rather harrowing to know that some one has an 
eye on the home you have furnished with your own means. 
I could hardly blame a man I knew, who, in an outburst of 
wrath concerning an officer who had at last uprooted him, 
secretly rejoiced that a small room that had been the object 
of envy, having been built at the impoverished post of refuse 
lumber from the stables, was unendurable on a warm day; 
and the new possessor was left to find it out when he had 
settled himself in the coveted house. 

After our quarters were chosen by the Colonel, we took 
another house, of moderate size, bought a few pieces of fur- 
niture of an officer leaving the post, and began to live our 
first homelike life. The arrival of the new officers was for a 
time our only excitement. Most of them had been in the 
volunteer service, and knew nothing of the regular army. 
There was no one to play practical jokes on the first comers; 
but they had made some ridiculous errors in dress and de- 
portment, when reporting at first, and they longed to take 
out their mortification at these harmless mistakes, by laying 
pitfalls for the verdant ones who were constantly arriving. 
The discipline of the regular army, and the punctilious ob- 
servance compelling the wearing of the uniform, was some- 
thing totally new to men who had known little of parades in 
their fighting days in the tented field. If it was possible to 
intimidate a new officer by tales of the strictness of the com- 
manding officer regarding the personal appearance of his 



238 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

regiment, they did so. One by one, those who had preceded 
the last comer called in to pay their compliments; but by 
previous agreement they one and all dwelt upon the neces- 
sity of his making a careful toilet before he approached the 
august presence of the Lieutenant-colonel. Then one or 
two offered carelessly to help him get himself up for the oc- 
casion. Our brother Tom had arrived by this time, but there 
was nothing to be made out of him, for he had served a few* 
months with a regular regiment before being transferred to 
ours. He was therefore sent one day to prepare me for the 
call of an officer who had been assisted into his new uniform 
by the mischievous knot of men who had been longest with 
us. If I had known to what test I was to be put to keep my 
face straight, or had dreamed what a gullible creature had 
come into their roguish hands, I would not have consented 
to receive him. But it was one of the imperative roles that 
each officer, after reporting for duty, must pay a formal visit 
to the commanding officer and his family. I went into the 
parlor to find a large, and at that time awkward, man, in full 
uniform, which was undeniably a tight fit for his rather portly 
figure. He wore cavalry boots, the first singularity I noticed, 
for they had such expanse of top I could not help seeing 
them. They are of course out of order with a dress coat. 
The red sash, which was then en regie for all officers, was 
spread from up under his arms to as far below the waist line 
as its elastic silk could be stretched. The sword-belt, with 
sabre attached, surrounded this; and, folded over the wide 
red front, were his large hands, encased in white cotton 
gloves. He never moved them; nor did he move an eyelash, 
so far as I could discover, though it seems he was full of in- 
ternal tremors, for the officers had told him on no account to 
remove his regulation hat. At this he demurred, and told 
them I would surely think he was no gentleman; but they 
assured him I placed military etiquette far above any ordi- 
nary rule for manners in the presence of ladies, while the truth 
was I was rather indifferent as to military rules of dress. As 
this poor man sat there, I could think of nothing but a child 




239 



24O TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

who is so carefully dressed in new furbelows that it sits as if 
it were carved out of wood, for fear of disarranging the fin- 
ished toilet. Diana made an almost instant excuse to leave 
the room. The General's mustache quivered, and he moved 
restlessly around, even coming again to shake hands with the 
automaton and bid him welcome to the regiment; but finally 
he dashed out of the door to enjoy the outburst of mirth 
that he could no longer control. I was thus left to meet the 
situation as best I could, but was not as fortunate as the Gen- 
eral, who had a friendly mustache to curtain the quiver in 
his mouth. The poor victim apparently recalled to himself 
the martial attitude of Washington crossing the Delaware, or 
Napoleon at Waterloo, and did not alter the first position he 
had assumed. In trying to prevent him from seeing my con- 
fusion, I redoubled my efforts to entertain him, and succeed- 
ed only too well, for when he slowly moved out of the door 
I found myself tired out, and full of wrath toward my return- 
ing family. I never could remember that these little spurts 
of rage were the primest fun for my people. The poor offi- 
cer who had been so guyed did not gratify his tormentors by 
getting angry, but fell to planning new mischief for the next 
arrival. He lost no time in begging my pardon for the hat, 
and though I never saw much of him afterward, he left only 
pleasant impressions on my mind of a kind-hearted man, and 
one of those rare beings who knew how to take a joke. 

We derived great pleasure from our horses and dogs during 
the autumn. A very pretty sorrel horse was selected for 
Diana, but we had little opportunity to have her for a com- 
panion. The young officers engaged her a week in advance, 
and about all we saw of her riding was an avalanche of flying 
curls as she galloped off beside some dashing cavalier. I re- 
member once, when she was engaged otherwise, and my 
horse temporarily disabled, I took hers, and my husband kept 
begging me to guide the animal better, for it was nettling his 
fiery beast by insisting upon too close proximity. It finally 
dawned upon us that the little horse was a constitutional 
snuggler, and we gave up trying to teach him new tricks. 



WESTWARD HO! 24 1 

But how the General shouted, and bent himself forward and 
back in his saddle, after the horse had almost crushed his 
leg and nothing would keep him at a distance. He could 
hardly wait to get back to garrison, and when we did, he 
walked into the midst of a collection of the beaux and told 
the whole story of how dreadfully demoralized a cavalry 
horse in good and regular standing could become, in the 
hands of a belle. The girl blushed, and the officers joined 
in the laughter, and yet every one of them had doubtless 
been busy in teaching that little telltale animal this new de- 
velopment of character. 

It was delightful ground to ride over about Fort Riley. 
Ah ! what happy days they were, for at that time I had not 
the slightest realization of what Indian warfare was, and con- 
sequently no dread. We knew that the country they infest- 
ed was many miles away, and we could ride in any direction 
we chose. The dogs would be aroused from the deepest 
sleep at the very sight of our riding costumes, and by the 
time we were well into them and whip in hand, they leaped 
and sprang about the room, tore out on the gallery, and 
tumbled over one another and the furniture in racing back, 
and such a din of barking and joyful whining as they set up 
— the noisier the better for my husband. He snapped his 
whip to incite them, and bounded around crying out, 
" Whoop 'em up! whoop 'em up! " adding to the melee by a 
toot on the dog-horn he had brought from the Texas deer- 
hunts. All this excited the horses, and when I was tossed 
into the saddle amidst this turmoil, with the dogs leaping 
around the horses' heads, I hardly knew whether I was my- 
self or the venturesome young woman who spends her life in 
taking airy nights through paper-covered circles in a saw- 
dust ring. It took some years for me to accustom myself to 
the wild din and hubbub of our starting for a ride or a hunt. 
As I have said before, I had lived quietly at home, and my 
decorous, suppressed father and mother never even spoke 
above a certain tone. The General's father, on the con- 
trary, had rallied his sons with a hallo and resounding shouts 



242 TENTING ON THE TLAINS. 

from their childhood. So the hullabaloo of all our merry 
startings was a thing of my husband's early days, and added 
zest to every sport he undertook. 

Coming from Michican, where there is a liberal dispensa- 
tion of swamp and quagmire, having been taught by dear ex- 
perience that Virginia had quicksands and sloughs into which 
one could disappear with great rapidity, and finally, having 
experienced Texas with its bayous, baked with a deceiving 
crust of mud, and its rivers with quicksand beds, very natural- 
ly I guided my horse around any lands that had even a de- 
pression. Indeed, he spoke volumes with his sensitive ears, 
as the turf darkened in hollows, and was ready enough to be 
guided by the rein on his satin-like neck, to the safer ground. 
It was a long time before I realized that all the Plains were 
safe. We chose no path, and stopped at no suspicion of a 
slough. Without a check on the rein, we flew over divide 
after divide, and it is beyond my pen to describe the wild 
sense of freedom that takes possession of one in the first 
buoyant knowledge that no impediment, seemingly, lies be- 
tween you and the setting sun. After one has ridden over 
conventional highways, the beaten path marked out by 
fences, hedges, bridges, etc., it is simply an impossibility to 
describe how the blood bounds in the veins at the freedom 
of an illimitable sea. No spongy, uncertain ground checks 
the course over the Plains; it is seldom even damp, and the 
air is so exhilarating one feels as if he had never breathed a 
full breath before. Almost the first words General Sherman 
said to me out there were, " Child, you'll find the air of the 
Plains is like champagne," and so it surely was. Oh, the joy 
of taking in air without a taint of the city, or even the coun- 
try, as we know it in farm life! As we rode on, speaking 
enthusiastically of the fragrance and purity of the atmosphere, 
our horses neighed and whinnied to each other, and snuffed 
the air, as if approving all that was said of that " land of the 
free." My husband could hardly breathe, from the very 
ecstasy of realizing that nothing trammeled him. He scarce- 
ly left the garrison behind him, where he was bound by chains 



WESTWARD HO! 243 

of form and ceremony — the inevitable lot of an officer, where 
all his acts are under surveillance, where he is obliged to 
know that every hour in the day he is setting an example — 
before he became the wildest and most frolicsome of light- 
hearted boys. His horse and he were one, not only as he sat 
in the saddle, a part of the animal, swayed by every motion 
of the active, graceful beast, but such unison of spirit took 
possession of each, it was hard to believe that a human heart 
did not beat under the broad, splendid chest of the high- 
strung animal. 

It were well if human hearts responded to our fondness, 
and came instantly to be en rapport with us, as did those 
dear animals when they flew with us out to freedom and 
frolic, over the divides that screened us from the conventional 
proprieties. My husband's horse had almost human ways of 
talking with him, as he leaned far out of the saddle and laid 
his face on the gallant animal's head, and there was a gleam 
in the eye, a proud little toss of the head, speaking back a 
whole world of affection. The General could ride hanging 
quite out of sight from the opposite side, one foot caught in 
the stirrup, his hand on the mane; and it made no difference 
to his beloved friend, he took any mode that his master chose 
to cling to him as a matter of course, and curveted and 
pranced in the loftiest, proudest way. His manner said as 
plainly as speech, "See what we two can do!" I rarely 
knew him to have a horse that did not soon become so per- 
vaded with his spirit that they appeared to be absolutely one 
in feeling. I was obliged, usually, to submit to some banter- 
ing slur on my splendid Custis Lee. Perhaps a dash at first 
would carry the General and the dogs somewhat in advance. 
My side had a trick of aching if we started off on a gallop, 
and I was obliged to keep a tight rein on Custis Lee at first, as 
he champed at the bit, tossed his impatient head, and showed 
every sign of ignominious shame. The General, as usual, 
called out, •• Come on, old lady! Hurry up that old plug of 
yours; I have one orderly; don't want another" — this be- 
cause the soldier in attendance is instructed to ride at a cer- 



244 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

tain distance in the rear. After a spurt of tremendous speed, 
back flew the master to beg me to excuse him; he was 
ready now to ride slowly till " that side of mine came round 
to time," which it quickly did, and then I revenged the in- 
sult on my swift Lee, and the maligner at last called out, 
" That's not so bad a nag, after all." 

The horses bounded from the springy turf as if they really 
hated the necessity of touching the sod at all. They were 
very well matched in speed, and as on we flew were "neck 
by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place." Breath- 
less at last, horses, dogs and ourselves made a halt. The 
orderly with his slow troop horse was a speck in the distance. 
Of course I had gone to pieces little by little, between the 
mad speed and rushing through the wind of the Plains. 
Those were ignominious days for women — thank fortune 
they are over! Custom made it necessary to disfigure our- 
selves with the awkward waterfall, and, no matter how 
luxuriant the hair, it seemed a necessity to still pile up more. 
With many a wrathful opinion regarding the fashion, the 
General took the hairpins, net and switch, and thrust them 
into the breast of his coat, as he said, " to clear the decks for 
action for another race." It was enough that he offered to 
cany these barbarities of civilization for me, without my 
bantering him about his ridiculousness if some accidental 
opening of his coat in the presence of the officers, who were 
then strangers, revealed what he scofffngly called " dead wo- 
men's hair." 

A fresh repinning, an ignoring of hairpins this time, re- 
girthing of saddles, some proud patting of the horses' quiv- 
ing flanks, passing of the hand over the full veins of their 
necks, praise of the beautiful distended, blood-red nostrils, 
and on we started for another race. If spur or whip had 
been used in speeding our horses, it would have spoiled the 
sport for me, as the effort and strain looks so cruelly like 
work; but the animals were as impatient for a run as we were 
to start them. It must be a rare moment of pleasure to all 
horse-lovers, to watch an animal flying over the ground, 



WESTWARD HO! 



245 



without an incentive save the love of motion born in the 
beast. When we came to certain smooth stretches on the 
road, where we were accustomed to give the horses the rein, 
they grew excited and impatient, and teased for the run if we 
chanced to be earnestly talking and forgot to take it. How 
fortunate is one who can ride a mythological Pegasus as well 
as a veritable horse! 1 here is nothing left for the less gifted 
but to use others' words for our own enthusiasm: 

" Now we're off, like the winds, to the plains whence they came; 
And the rapture of motion is thrilling my frame! 
On, on, speeds my courser, scarce printing the sod, 
Scarce crushing a daisy to mark where we trod; 
On, on, like a deer when the hounds' early bay 
Awakes the wild echoes, away and away! 
Still faster, still farther, he leaps at my cheer, 
Till the rush of the startled air whirs in my ear! " 

Buchanan Read not only made General Sheridan's splendid 
black horse immortal, but his grateful owner kept that faith- 
ful beast, when it was disabled, in a paddock at Leaven- 
worth, and then, when age and old wounds ended his life, 
he perpetuated his memory by having the taxidermist set 
him up in the Military Museum at Governor's Island, that 
the boys of this day, to whom the war is only history, may re- 
member what a splendid part a horse took in those days, 
when soldiers were not the only heroes. I thank a poet for 
having written thus for us to whom the horse is almost 
human: 

" I tell thee, stranger, that unto me 
The plunge of a fiery steed 
Is a noble thought— to the brave and free 
It is music, and breath, and majesty — 

'Tis the life of a noble deed; 
And the heart and the mind are in spirit allied 
In the charm of a morning's glorious ride." 

There was a long, smooth stretch of land beyond Fort 
Riley, where we used to speed our horses, and it even now 




A SUSPENDED EQUESTRIENNE. 

246 



WESTWARD HO! 



247 



seems one of the fair spots of earth, it is so marked by happy 
hours. In reality it was a level plain without a tree, and the 
dried buffalo-grass had then scarcely a tinge of green. This 
neutral-tinted, monotonous surface continued for many un- 
varying miles. We could do as we chose after we had passed 
out of sight of the garrison, and our orderly, if he happened 
to have a decent horse that could overtake us, kept drawing 
the muscles of his face into a soldierly expression, trying not 
to be so undignified as to laugh at the gamesomeness, the 
frolic, of his commanding officer. What a relief for the poor 
fellow, in his uneventful life, to get a look at these pranks! 
I can see him now, trying to keep his head away and look 
unconscious, but his eyes turned in their sockets in spite of 
him and caught it all. Those eyes were wild with terror one 
day, when our horses were going full tilt, and the General 
with one powerful arm, lifted me out of my saddle and held 
me poised in the air for a moment. Our horses were so 
evenly matched in speed they were neck and neck, keeping 
close to each other, seemingly regardless of anything except 
the delight at the speed with which they left the country be- 
hind them. In the brief moment that I found myself sus- 
pended between heaven and earth, I thought, with lightning 
rapidity, that I must cling to my bridle and keep control of 
my flying horse, and trust to good fortune whether I alighted 
on his ear or his tail. The moment I was thus held aloft was 
an hour in uncertainty, but nothing happened, and it taught 
me to prepare for sudden raids of the commanding officer 
after that. I read of this feat in some novel, but was incred- 
ulous until it was successfully practiced on me. The Custer 
men were given to what their Maryland father called " tot- 
ing " us around. I've seen them pick up their mother and 
carry her over the house as if she weighed fifty instead of one 
hundred and fifty pounds. There was no chance for digni- 
fied anger with them. No matter how indignant I might be, 
or how loftily I might answer back, or try one of those elo- 
quent silences to which we women sometimes resort in mo- 
ments of wrath, I was snatched up by either my husband or 



248 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Tom, and had a chance to commune with the ceiling in my 
airy flight up and down stairs and through the rooms. 

One of our rides marked a day with me, for it was the oc- 
casion of a very successful exchange of horses. My husband 
used laughingly to refer to the transaction as unfortunate for 
him; but as it was at his suggestion, I clung with pertinacity 
to the bargain. My horse, Custis Lee, being a pacer, my 
husband felt in the fascination of that smooth, swift gait I 
might be so wedded to it I could never endure anything else; 
so he suggested, while we were far out on our evening ride, 
that we change saddles and try each other's horse. I objected, 
for though I could ride a spirited horse when I had come to 
know him, I dreaded the early stages of acquaintance. Be- 
sides, Phil was a high-strung colt, and it was a venturesome 
experiment to try him with a long riding-skirt, loaded with 
shot, knocking about his legs. At that time the safe fashion 
of short habits was not in vogue, and the high winds of Kan- 
sas left no alternative to loading our skirts. We kept open- 
ing the hem and inserting the little shot-bags as long as we 
lived there. Fortunately for me, I was persuaded into trying 
the colt. As soon as he broke into a long swinging trot, I 
was so enchanted and so hilarious with the motion, that I 
mentally resolved never to yield the honor temporarily con- 
ferred upon me. It was the beginning of an eternal vigilance 
for my husband. The animal was so high-strung, so quick, 
notwithstanding he was so large, that he sprang from one 
side of the road to the other on all fours, without the slight- 
est warning. After I had checked him and recovered my 
breath, we looked about for a cause for this fright, and found 
only the dark earth where slight moisture had remained from 
a shower. In order to get the smoothest trotting out of him, 
I rode with a snaffle, and I never knew the General's eyes to 
be off him for more than an instant. The officers protested, 
and implored my husband to change back and give me the 
pacer. But his pride was up, and he enjoyed seeing the 
animal quivering with delight at doing his best under a light 
weight, and he had genuine love for the brute that, though 



WESTWARD HO ! 249 

so hard to manage in his hands, responded to my lightest 
touch or to my voice. 

As time advanced and our regiment gained better and bet- 
ter horseflesh, it was a favorite scheme to pit Phil against 
new-comers. We all started out, a gay cavalcade of noisy, 
happy people, and the stranger was given the post of honor 
next to the wife of the commanding officer. Of course he 
thought nothing of this, as he had been at the right of the 
hostess at dinner. The other officers saw him take his place 
as if it were the most natural thing in the world, but in reality 
it was a deep-laid plot. Phil started off with so little effort 
that our visitor thought nothing of keeping pace for a while, 
and then he began to use his spurs. As my colt took longer 
and longer strides, there was triumph in the faces of the offi- 
cers, and a gleam of delight in the General's eye. Then came 
the perplexity in my guest's face at a trotter outdoing the most 
splendid specimen of a loping horse, as he thought. A little 
glance from my husband, which incited me to give a sign 
and a low word or two that only Phil and I understood, and 
off we flew, leaving the mystified man urging his nag in vain. 
It was not quite my idea of hospitality so to introduce a 
new-comer to our horses' speed ; but then he was not a tran- 
sient guest, and the sooner he knew all our "tricks and our 
manners " the better, while it was beyond my power of self- 
denial to miss seeing the proud triumph in my husband's 
eyes as he rode up and patted the colt and received the little 
return of affection from the knowing beast. Phil went on 
improving in gait and swiftness as he grew in years, and I 
once had the courage, afterward, to speed him on the Gov- 
ernment race-track at Fort Leavenworth, though to this day 
I cannot understand how I got up to concert pitch; and I 
could never be induced to try such an experiment again. I 
suppose I often made as good time, trotting beside my hus- 
band's horse, but to go alone was something I was never per- 
mitted to do on a roadway. The General and brother Tom 
connived to get this bit of temporary courage out of me by 
an offhand conversation, as we rode toward the track, re- 



25O TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

garding what Phil might be made to do under the best cir- 
cumstances, which I knew meant the snaffle-rein, a light 
weight, and my hand, which the General had trained to be 
steady. I tried to beg off and suggest either one of them for 
the trial; but the curb which they were obliged to use, as 
Phil was no easy brute to manage with them, made him 
break his gait, and a hundred and seventy pounds on his 
back was another obstacle to speed. It ended in my being- 
teased into the experiment, and though I called out, after 
the first half-mile, that I could not breathe any longer, the 
air rushed into my lungs so rapidly, they implored and urged 
by gesture and enthusiastic praise, until I made the mile they 
had believed Phil equal to in three minutes. 

I wish I could describe what delight my husband took in his 
horse life, what hours of recreation and untiring pleasure he got 
out of our companionship with Jack Rucker, Phil and Custis 
Lee. On that day we three and our orderly were alone on the 
track, and such a merry, noisy, care-forgetting three as we 
were! the General, with his stop-watch in hand, cheering me, 
urging the horse wildly, clapping his hands, and hallooing with 
joy as the animal responded to his expectation. Phil's coming 
up to their boasts and anticipations was just a little episode 
in our life that went to prove what a rare faculty he had of 
getting much out of little, and of how persistently the boy 
in him cropped out as soon as an opportunity came to throw 
care aside. It is one of the results of a life of deprivation, 
that pleasures, when they come, are rarities, and the enjoy- 
ment is intensified. In our life they lasted so short a time 
that we had no chance to learn the meaning of satiety. 

One of the hardest trials, in our first winter with the regi- 
ment, was that arising from the constantly developing tend- 
ency to hard drinking. Some who came to us had held up 
for a time, but they were not restricted in the volunteer serv- 
ice, as a man who fought well was forgiven much else that 
came in the rare intervals of peace. In the new state of af- 
fairs, as went the first few months of the regiment, so would 
it go for all time. There was a regiment stationed in New 



WESTWARD HO! 25 1 

Mexico at that time, the record of which was shameful. We 
heard of its career by every overland train that came into our 
post, and from officers who went out on duty. General 
Sherman said that, with such a set of drunkards, the regi- 
ment, officers and all, should be mustered out of the service. 
Anything, then, rather than let our Seventh follow such a 
course. But I must not leave the regiment at that point in 
its history. Eventually it came out all right, ably officered 
and well soldiered, but it was the terror of the country in 
1867. While General Custer steadily fought against drunk- 
enness, he was not remorseless or unjust. I could cite one 
instance after another, to prove with what patience he strove 
to reclaim some who were, I fear, hopeless when they joined 
us. His own greatest battles were not fought in the tented 
field ; his most glorious combats were those waged in daily, 
hourly fights on a more hotly contested field than was ever 
known in common warfare. The truest heroism is not that 
which goes out supported by strong battalions and reserve 
artillery. It is when a warrior for the right enters into the 
conflict alone, and dares to exercise his will in defiance of 
some established custom in which lies a lurking, deadly peril 
or sin. I have known my husband to almost stand alone in 
his opinion regarding temperance, in a garrison containing 
enough people to make a good-sized village. He was thor- 
oughly unostentatious about his convictions, and rarely said 
much ; but he stood to his fixed purpose, purely from horror 
of the results of drinking. I would not imply that in garri- 
son General Custer was the only man invariably temperate. 
There were some on pledge; some temperate because they 
paid such a physical penalty by actual illness that they could 
not drink; some restrained because their best-loved com- 
rade, weak in his own might, "swore off" on consideration 
that the stronger one of the two backed him up; some 
(God bless them!) refused because the woman they loved 
grieved, and was afraid of even one friendly glass. What I 
mean is, that the general custom, against which there is little 
opposition in any life, is, either to indulge in the social glass, 



252 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

or look leniently upon the habit. Without preaching or 
parading his own strength in having overcome the habit, 
General Custer stood among the officers and men as firm an 
advocate of temperance as any evangelist whose life is devoted 
to the cause. 

I scarcely think I would have realized the constantly recur- 
ring temptations of my husband's life, had I not been beside 
him when he fought these oft-repeated battles. The pleasure 
he had in convivial life, the manner in which men and wo- 
men urged him to join them in enjoyment of the sparkling 
wine, was enough to have swept every resolution to the winds. 
Sometimes the keen blade of sarcasm, though set with jew- 
els of wit and apparent badinage, added a cut that my ears, 
so quickened to my husband's hard position, heard and 
grieved over. But he laughed off the carefully concealed 
thrust. When we were at home in our own room, if I asked 
him, blazing anew with wrath at such a stab, how he kept his 
temper, he replied, "Why notice it? Don't I know what 
I've been through to gain my victory? That fellow, you 
must remember, has fought and lost, and knows in his soul 
he'll go to the dogs if he doesn't hold up, and, Libbie, he 
can't do it, and I am sorry for him." Our brother Tom was 
less patient, less forbearing, for in one of his times of pledge, 
when the noble fellow had given his word not to taste a drop 
for a certain season if a man he loved, and about whom he 
was anxious, would do the same, he was sneered at by a 
brother officer, with gibes at his supposed or attempted su- 
periority. Tom leaped across the table in the tent where 
they sat at dinner, and shook up his assailant in a very em- 
phatic way. I laugh in remembrance of his choler, and am 
proud of it now. I, as "gentlewoman," descended from a 
line of decorous gentlemen and ladies, ought to be horrified 
at one man's seizing another by the collar and pouncing 
upon him, regardless of the Marquis of Queensbury rules. 
But I know that circumstances alter cases, and in our life an 
occasional good shaking was better than the slow justice of 
a tedious court-martial. 



WESTWARD HO! 253 

The General would not smile, but there was a noticeable 
twisting of his mustache, and he took himself out of the way 
to conceal his feelings, when I pointed my discerning finger 
at him and said, " You're laughing, your own self, and you 
think Tom was right, even if you don't say a word, and look 
so dreadfully commandery-officery at both of us!" The 
General did not keep himself aloof, and sometimes, in con- 
vivial scenes, when he joined in the increasing hilarity, was 
so infused with the growing artificial joviality, and grew jollier 
and jollier, that he was accused himself of being the wildest 
drinker of them all. But some one was sure to speak up and 
say, as the morning approached, "I have sat beside Custer 
the night through, and if he's intoxicated it's over water, for 
he has not tasted a drop of wine — more loss to him, I say." 

Only a short time before the final battle, he dined in New 
York, at a house where General McDowell was also a guest. 
When no one else could hear, he told me, with a warning 
not to talk of it, that he had some one to keep him company, 
and described the bowl of ice that stood in the midst of the 
untouched semicircle of glasses before General McDowell, 
and how the ice seemed just as satisfactory as any of the 
rare beverages. We listened once to John B. Gough, and 
the General's enthusiasm over his earnestness and his elo- 
quence was enhanced by the well-known fact of his failures, 
and the plucky manner in which he started anew. Everybody 
cries over Jefferson's Rip Van Winkle, even if they have 
never encountered drunkenness, and my husband wept like a 
child because of his intense sympathy for the weakness of the 
poor tempted soul, harrowed as he was by a Xantippe. 

If women in civil life were taken among men, as army 
women are, in all sorts of festivities, they would get a better 
idea of what strength of purpose it requires to carry out a 
principle. At some army posts the women go to the sutler's 
store with their husbands, for billiards or amusements. 
There is a separate room for the soldiers, so we see nothing 
of those poor fellows who never can stay sober. The sutler's 
is not only the store, but it is the club-house for the garrison, 



254 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

and I have known posts where the officers were so guarded 
about their drinking, that women could go among them and 
join in any amusement without being liable to the distress 
that the sight of an intoxicated man invariably gives to a 
sensitive woman. If I saw drunken soldiers reeling off after 
pay-day, it was the greatest possible relief to me to know, 
that out of hundreds only a few were married, as but a cer- 
tain number of the laundresses were allowed to a company. 
So no woman's heart was going to be wrung by unsteady 
steps approaching her door, and the sight of the vacant eyes 
of a weak husband. It took away half the sting and shock, 
to know that a soldier's spree was not one that recoiled on 
an innocent woman. 

As I look back upon our life, I do not believe there ever 
was any path so difficult as those men on the frontier trod. 
Their failures, their fights, their vacillations, all were before 
us, and it was an anxious life to be watching who won and 
who lost in those moral warfares. You could not separate 
yourself from the interests of one another. It was a network 
of friendships that became more and more interwoven by 
common hardships, deprivations, dangers, by isolation and 
the daily sharing of joys and troubles. I am thankful for the 
certainty that there is some one who scores all our fights and 
all our victories ; for on His records will be written the story 
of the thorny path over which an officer walked if he reached 
the goal. 

Women shielded in homes, supported by example, uncon- 
scious of any temptation save the mildest, will realize with 
me what it was to watch the quivering mouth of a man who 
voluntarily admitted that until he was fifty he knew he was 
in hourly peril of being a drunkard. The tears blind me as I 
go back in retrospection and think over the men that warred 
against themselves. 

In one respect, there never was such a life as ours ; it was 
eminently one of partings. How natural, then, that the last 
act before separation be one of hospitable generosity ! How 
little we had to offer ! It was often almost an impossibility 



WESTWARD HO! 255 

to get up a good dinner. Then we had so many coming to 
us from a distance, that our welcome could not be followed 
up by any entertainment worthy of the name. Besides, there 
were promotions to celebrate, an occasional son and heir to 
toast, birthdays occurring so often, and nothing in the world 
that answered for an expression of hospitality and good feel- 
ing but an old straw demijohn behind the door. It was sur- 
prising what pertinacious lives the demijohns of the garrison 
had. The driver of the wagon containing the few appoint- 
ments of an officer's outfit, was just as careful of the familiar 
friend as one could wish servants to be with the lares and 
penates of an aesthetic household. If he was rewarded with 
a drink from the sacred demijohn, after having safely pre- 
served it over muddy roads, where the mules jerked the 
prairie-schooner out of ruts, and where, except for a protect- 
ing hand, the contents would have saturated the wagon, he 
was thankful. But such was his reverence for what he con- 
sidered the most valuable possession of the whole wagon, 
virtue alone would have been sufficient reward. When in the 
regimental movings the crockery (the very heaviest that is 
made) was smashed, the furniture broken, carpets, curtains, 
clothes and bedding mildewed and torn, the old demijohn 
neither broke, spilled nor suffered any injury by exposure to 
the elements. It was, in the opinion of our lovers of good 
whiskey, a "survival of the fittest." 

It never came to be an old story with me, that in this con- 
stant, familiar association with drinking, the General and 
those of his comrades who abstained could continue to exer- 
cise a marvelous self-control. I could not help constantly 
speaking to my husband of what he went through ; and it 
seemed to me that no liberty could be too great to extend to 
men who, always keeping their heads, were clear as to what 
they were about. The domestic lariat of a cavalryman might 
well be drawn in, if the women waiting at home were uncer- 
tain whether the brains of their liege lords would be muddled 
when absent from their influence. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

A MEDLEY OF OFFICERS AND MEN. 

It was well we had our horses at Fort Riley for recreation, 
as walking was almost out of the question in autumn. The 
wind blew unceasingly all the five years we were in Kansas, 
but it seemed to do its wildest work in autumn. No one had 
told us of its incessant activity, and I watched for it to quiet 
down for days after our arrival, and grew restless and dull for 
want of exercise, but dared not go out. As the post was on 
a plateau, the wind from the two river valleys swept over it 
constantly. The flag was torn into ribbons in no time, and 
the storm-flag, made smaller, and used in rainy weather, had 
to be raised a good deal, while the larger and handsomer one 
was being mended. We found that the other women of the 
garrison, who were there when we arrived, ventured out to 
see one another, and even crossed the parade-ground, when 
it was almost impossible to keep on one's feet. It seems to 
date very far back, when I recall that our dresses then meas- 
ured five yards around, and were gathered as full as could be 
pressed into the waistband. These seven breadths of skirt 
flew out in advance of us, if they did not lift themselves over 
our heads. My skirts wrapped themselves around my hus- 
band's ankles, and rendered locomotion very difficult for us 
both, if we tried to take our evening stroll. He thought out 
a plan, which he helped me to carry into effect, by cutting 
bits of lead in small strips, and these I sewed into the hem. 
Thus loaded down, we took our constitutional about the 
post, and outwitted the elements, which at first bade fair to 
keep us perpetually housed. 

There was very little social life in garrison that winter. The 
256 



A MEDLEY OF OFFICERS AND MEN. 257 

officers were busy studying tactics, and accustoming them- 
selves to the new order of affairs, so very different from their 
volunteer experience. Had not everything been so novel, I 
should have felt disappointed in my first association with the 
regular army in garrison. I did not then consider that the 
few old officers and their families were really the regular 
army, and so was somewhat disheartened regarding our fu- 
ture associates. As fast as our own officers arrived, a part of 
the regiment that had garrisoned Fort Riley before we came 
went away; but it soon became too late in the season to send 
the remainder. The post was therefore crowded. The best 
manners with which all had made their debut wore off, and 
some jangling began. Some drank too freely, and were 
placed under arrest, or released if they went on pledge. 
Nothing was said, of course, if they were sober enough for 
duty; but there were some hopeless cases from the first. For 
instance, a new appointee made his entrance into our parlor, 
when paying the visit that military etiquette requires, by 
falling in at the door, and after recovering an upright posi- 
tion, proceeded to entangle himself in his sword again, and 
tumble into a chair. I happened to be alone, and was, of 
course, very much frightened. In the afternoon the officers 
met in one of their quarters, and drew up resolutions that 
gave the new arrival the choice of a court-martial or his res- 
ignation before night; and by evening he had written out 
the papers resigning his commission. Another fine-looking 
man, whom the General worked long and faithfully to make 
a sober officer, had really some good instincts. He was so 
glad to get into our home circle, and was so social, telling 
the drollest stories of far Western life, where he had lived 
formerly, that I became greatly interested in his efforts at 
reformation. He was almost the first to be court-martialed 
for drunkenness on duty, and that was always a grief to us; 
but in those early days of our regiment's history, arrest, im- 
prisonment and trial had to go on much of the time. The 
officer to whom I refer was getting into and out of difficulty 
incessantly. He repented in such a frank, regretful sort of 



258 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

way that my husband kept faith in his final reformation long 
after it seemed hopeless. One day I asked him to dinner. It 
was Thanksgiving, and on those days we tried to select the 
officers that talked most to us of their homes and parents. 
To my dismay, our reprobate came into the room with very 
uncertain gait. The other men looked anxiously at him. My 
husband was not in the parlor. I thought of other instances 
where these signs of intoxication had passed away in a little 
while, and tried to ignore his condition. He was sober 
enough to see the concerned look in his comrades' faces, and 
brought the tears to my eyes by walking up to me and say- 
ing, "Mrs. Custer, I'm sorry, but I think it would be best 
for me to go home." Who could help being grieved for a 
man so frank and humble over his failings ? There were six 
years of such vicissitudes in this unfortunate man's life, va- 
ried by brave conduct in the Indian campaigns, before the 
General gave him up. He violated, at last, some social law 
that was considered an outrage beyond pardon, which com- 
pelled his departure from the Seventh. That first winter, 
while the General was trying to enforce one fact upon the 
new-comers, that the Seventh must be a sober regiment, it 
was a difficult and anything but pleasant experience. 

Very few of the original appointments remained after a few 
years. Some who served on to the final battle of 1876, went 
through many struggles in gaining mastery of themselves. 
The General believed in them, and they were such splendid 
fighters, and such fine men when there was anything to occu- 
py them, I know that my husband appreciated with all his 
soul what trials they went through in facing the monotony 
of frontier life. Indeed, he was himself enduring some hours 
of torture from restlessness and inactivity. It is hard to 
imagine a greater change than from the wild excitement of 
the Virginia campaigns, the final scenes of the war, to the 
dullness of Fort Riley. Oh ! how I used to feel when my 
husband's morning duties at the office were over, and he 
walked the floor of our room, saying, " Libbie, what shall I 
do ? " There were no books to speak of, for the Seventh was 




GENERAL CUSTER AT HIS DESK IN HIS LIBRARY. 
259 



260 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

then too new a regiment to purchase company libraries, as 

we did later My husband never cared much for 

current novels, and these were almost the sole literature of 
the households at that time. At every arrival of the mail, 
there was absolute contentment for a while. The magazines 
and newspapers were eagerly read, and I used to discover 
that even the advertisements were scanned. If the General 
was caught at this, and accused of it, he slid behind his pa- 
per in mock humility, peeping roguishly from one side when 
a voice, pitched loftily, inquired whether reading advertise- 
ments was more profitable than talking with one's wife ? It 
was hard enough, though, when the heaps of newspapers lay 
on the floor, all devoured, and one so devoted to them as he 
was condemned to await the slow arrival of another mail. The 
Harper s Bazar fashion-pages were not scorned in that dearth 
of reading, by the men about our fireside. We had among 
us a famous newspaper-reader; the men could not outstrip 
her in extracting everything that the paper held, and the 
General delighted in hunting up accounts of " rapscallions " 
from her native State, cutting out the paragraphs, and send- 
ing them to her by an orderly. But his hour of triumph was 
brief, for the next mail was sure to contain an account of 
either a Michigan or Ohio villain, and the promptness with 
which General Custer was made aware of the vagabondage 
of his fellow-citizens was highly appreciated by all of us. He 
had this disadvantage: he was .a native of Ohio, and appoint- 
ed to the Military Academy from there, and that State claim- 
ed him, and very proud we were to have them do so; but 
Michigan was the State of his adoption during the war, he 
having married there, and it being the home of his celebrat- 
ed "Michigan brigade." . . . He was enabled, by that 
bright woman's industry, to ascertain what a large share of 
the population of those States were adepts in crime, as no 
trifling account, or even a pickpocket was overlooked. I re- 
member how we laughed at her one day. This friend of ours 
was not in the least sensational, she was the very incarna- 
tion of delicate refinement. All her reading (aside from 



A MEDLEY OF OFFICERS AND MEN. 26l 

the search for Ohio and Michigan villains in the papers) 
was of the loftiest type ; but the blood rose in wild billows 
over her sweet face when her son declared his mother such a 
newspaper devotee that he had caught her reading the " per- 
sonals." We knew it was a fib; but it proves to what 
lengths a person might go from sheer desperation, when 
stranded on the Plains. 

Fortunately, I was not called much from home, as there 
were few social duties that winter, and we devised all sorts of 
trumpery expedients to vary our life. There was usually a 
wild game of romps before the day was ended, We had the 
strangest neighbors. A family lived on each floor, but the 
walls were not thick, as the Government had wasted no ma- 
terial in putting up our plain quarters. We must have set 
their nerves on edge, I suppose, for while we tore up stairs 
and down, using the furniture for temporary barricades 
against each other, the dogs barking and racing around, 
glad to join in the fracas, the din was frightful. 

The neighbors — not belonging to our regiment, I am 
thankful to say, having come from a circle where the husband 
brings the wife to terms by brute force — in giving a minute 
description of the sounds that issued from our quarters, ac- 
counted for the melee to those of the garrison they could get 
to listen, by saying that the commanding officer was beating 
his wife. While I was inclined to resent such accusations, 
they struck the General very differently. He thought it was 
intensely funny, and the gossip passed literally in at one ear 
and out at the other, though it dwelt with him long enough 
to suggest something about the good discipline a man might 
have if the Virginia law, never repealed, were now in vogue. 
I felt sure it would fare badly with me; for, though the di- 
mensions of the stick with which a man is permitted to beat 
his wife are limited to the size of the husband's finger, my 
husband's hands, though in good proportion, had fingers the 
bones of which were unusually large. These strange fingers 
were not noticeable until one took hold of them; but if they 
were carefully studied, with the old English law of Virginia 



262 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

in mind, there well might be a family mutiny. I tried to beg 
off from further visits to certain families of this stamp, but 
never succeeded; the General insisted on my going every- 
where. One of the women asked me one day if I rose early. 
Not knowing why she asked, I replied that I feared it was 
often 9 o'clock before we awoke, whereupon she answered, in 
an affected voice, that " she never rose early— it was so ple- 
beian." 

It was very discouraging, this first encounter with what I 
supposed would be my life-long associates. There were many 
political appointments in the army then. Each State was 
entitled to its quota, and they were frequently given for fa- 
voritism, regardless of soldierly qualities. There were also a 
good many non-commissioned officers, who, having done 
good service during the war, were given commissions in the 
new regiments. For several years it was difficult to arrange 
everything so satisfactorily in social life that no one's feelings 
would be hurt. The unvarying rule, which my husband con- 
sidered should not be violated by any who truly desired har- 
mony, was to visit every one in their circle, and exclude no 
one from invitations to our house, unless for positively dis- 
graceful conduct. 

We heard, from other posts, of the most amusing and 
sometimes the most uncomfortable of experiences. If I knew 
any one to whom this incident occurred, I should not venture 
to make use of it as an example of the embarrassing situa- 
tions in the new order of affairs in the reorganized army. 
The story is true; but the names, if I ever knew them, have 
long since faded out of memory. One of the Irish laun- 
dresses at a Western post was evidently infatuated with army 
life, as she was the widow of a volunteer officer — doubtless 
some old soldier of the regular army, who held a commission 
in one of the regiments during the war— and the woman drew 
the pension of a major's widow. Money, therefore, could 
not have been the inducement that brought her back to a 
frontier post. At one time she left her fascinating clothes- 
line and went into the family of an officer, to cook, but was 



A MEDLEY OF OFFICERS AND MEN. 263 

obliged to leave, from illness. Her place was filled satisfac- 
torily, and when she recovered and came back to the officer's 
wife, she was told that the present cook was entirely satisfac- 
tory, but she might yet find a place, as another officer's wife 
(whose husband had been an enlisted man, and had lately 
been appointed an officer in the regular regiment stationed 
there) needed a cook. It seems that this officer's wife also had 
been a laundress at one time, and the woman applying for 
work squared herself off in an independent manner, placed 
her arms akimbo, and announced her platform: " Mrs. Blank, 
1 ken work for a leddy, but I can't go there; there was a 
time when Mrs. and I had our toobs side by side." 

How often, in that first winter, I thought of my father's 
unstinted praise of the regular army, as he had known it at 
Sackett's Harbor and at Detroit, in Michigan's early days. 
I could not but wonder what he would think, to be let down 
in the midst of us. He used to say, in reference to my fu- 
ture, " Daughter, marrying into the army, you will be poor 
always ; but I count it infinitely preferable to riches with in- 
ferior society. It consoles me to think you will be always 
associated with people of refinement." Meanwhile, the Gen- 
eral was never done begging me to be silent about any new 
evidences of vulgarity. There were several high-bred women 
at Fort Riley ; but they were so discreet I never knew but 
that they had been accustomed to such associations, until 
after the queer lot had departed and we dared to speak con- 
fidentially to one another. 

Soon after the officers began to arrive in the autumn, an 
enlisted man, whom the General had known about in the 
regular army, reported for duty. He had reenlisted in the 
Seventh, hoping ultimately for a commission. He was sol- 
dierly in appearance, from his long experience in military life, 
and excellently well versed in tactics and regimental disci- 
pline. On this account he was made sergeant-major, the 
highest non-commissioned officer of a regiment ; and, at his 
request, the General made application almost at once for his 
appointment as a lieutenant in the Seventh Cavalry. The 



264 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

application was granted, and the sergeant-major went to 
Washington to be examined. The examining board was 
composed of old and experienced officers, who were reported 
to be opposed to the appointment of enlisted men. At any 
rate, the applicant was asked a collection of questions that 
were seemingly unanswerable. I only remember one, "What 
does a regiment of cavalry weigh ? " Considering the differ- 
ences in the officers, men and horses, it would seem as if a 
correct answer were impossible. The sergeant-major failed, 
and returned to our post with the hopelessness before him of 
five years of association with men in the ranks ; for there is 
no escaping the whole term of enlistment, unless it is found 
that a man is under age. But the General did not give up. 
He encouraged the disappointed man to hope, and when he 
was ordered before the board himself, he went to the Secre- 
tary of War and made personal application for the appoint- 
ment. Washington was then full of men and their friends, 
clamoring for the vacancies in the new regiments ; but Gen- 
eral Custer was rarely in Washington, and was guarded in 
not making too many appeals, so he obtained the promise, 
and soon afterward the sergeant-major replaced the chevrons 
with shoulder-straps. Then ensued one of those awkward 
situations, that seem doubly so in a life where there is such 
marked distinction in the social standing of an officer and a 
private ; and some of the Seventh Cavalry made the situation 
still more embarrassing by conspicuous avoidance of the new 
lieutenant, carefully ignoring him except where official rela- 
tions existed. This seemed doubly severe, as they knew of 
nothing in the man's conduct, past or present, to justify them 
in such behavior. He had borne himself with dignity as 
sergeant-major, living very much to himself, and performing 
every duty punctiliously. Shortly before, he had been an 
officer like themselves in the volunteer service, and this social 
ostracism, solely on account of a few months of service as an 
enlisted man, was absurd. They went back to his early serv- 
ice as a soldier, determined to show him that he was not " to 
the manner born." The single men had established a mess, and 



A MEDLEY OF OFFICERS AND MEN. 265 

each bachelor officer who came was promptly called upon and 
duly invited to join them at table. There was literally no other 
place to be fed. There were no cooks to be had in that un- 
settled land, and if there had been servants to hire, the ex- 
orbitant wages would have consumed a lieutenant's pay. 
There were enough officers in the bachelors' mess to carry 
the day against the late sergeant-major. My husband was 
much disturbed by this discourteous conduct ; but it did not 
belong to the province of the commanding officer, and he 
was careful to keep the line of demarkation between social 
and official affairs distinct. Yet it did not take long for him 
to think a way out of the dilemma. He came to me to ask 
if I would be willing to have him in our family temporarily, 
and, of course, it ended in the invitation being given. In the 
evening, when our quarters rilled up with the bachelor offi- 
cers, they found the lieutenant whom they had snubbed 
established as one of the commanding officer's family. He 
remained as one of us until the officers formed another mess, 
as their number increased, and the new lieutenant was invited 
to join them. This was not the end of General Custer's 
marked regard for him, and as long as he lived he showed 
his unswerving friendship, and, in ways that the officer never 
knew, kept up his disinterested loyalty, making me sure, as 
years advanced, that he was worthy of the old adage, " Once 
a friend, always a friend." Until he was certain that there 
was duplicity and ingratitude, or that worst of sins, concealed 
enmity, he kept faith and friendships intact. At that time 
there was every reason in the world for an officer whose own 
footing was uncertain, and who owed everything to my hus- 
band, to remain true to him. 

Many of the officers were learning to ride, as they had 
either served in the infantry during the war, or were appointed 
from civil life, and came from all sorts of vocations. It would 
seem that hardly half of the number then knew how to sit or 
even to mount a horse, and the grand and lofty tumbling 
that winter kept us in a constant state of merriment. It was 
too bad to look on and laugh ; but for the life of me I could 



266 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

not resist every chance I had to watch them clambering up 
their horses' sides, tying themselves hopelessly in their sabres, 
and contorting their heels so wildly that the restive animal 
got the benefit of a spur in unexpected places, as likely in his 
neck as in his flank. One officer, who came to us from the 
merchant marine, used to insist upon saying to his brother 
officers, when off duty and experimenting with his steed, "If 
you don't think I am a sailor, see me shin up this horse's 
foreleg. " 

Some grew hot and wrathy if laughed at, and that in- 
creased our fun. Others were good-natured, even coming 
into the midst of us and deliberately narrating the number of 
times the horse had either slipped from under them, turned 
them off over his head, or rubbed them off by running against 
a fence or tree-trunk. Occasionally somebody tried to hide 
the fact that he had been thrown, and then there was 
high carnival over the misfortune. The ancient rule, that 
had existed as far back as the oldest officer could remember, 
was, that a basket of champagne was the forfeit of a first fall. 
Many hampers were emptied that winter ; but as there were 
so many to share the treat (and I am inclined to think, also, 
it was native champagne, from St. Louis), I don't remember 
any uproarious results, except the natural wild spirits of fun- 
loving people. After the secret was out and the forfeit paid, 
there was much more courage among the officers in letting 
the mishaps be known. They did not take their nags off into 
gullys where they were hidden from the post, and have it 
out alone, but tumbled off in sight of the galleries of our quar- 
ters, and made nothing of a whole afternoon of voluntary 
mounting and decidedly involuntary dismounting. One of 
the great six-footers among us told me his beast had tossed 
him off half a dozen times in one ride, but he ended by con- 
quering. He daily fought a battle with his horse, and, in 
describing the efforts to unseat him, said that at last the ani- 
mal jumped into the creek. How I admired his pluck and 
the gleam in his eye ; and what a glimpse that determination 
to master gave of his successful future ! for he won in resist- 



A MEDLEY OE OFFICERS AND MEN. 267 

ing temptation, and conquered in making himself a soldier, 
and his life, though short, was a triumph. 

I am obliged to confess that to this day I owe a basket of 
champagne, for I belonged to those that went off the horse 
against their will and then concealed the fact. My husband 
and one of his staff were riding with me one day, and asked 
me to go on in advance, as they wanted to talk over some- 
thing that was not of interest to me. I forgot to keep watch 
of my fiery steed, and when he took one of those mad jumps 
from one side of the road to the other, at some imaginary 
obstacle, not being on guard I lost balance, and found myself 
hanging to the saddle. There was nothing left for me but an 
ignominious slide, and I landed in the dust. The General 
found Phil trotting riderless toward him, was terribly fright- 
ened, and rode furiously toward where I was. To save him 
needless alarm, I called out, "All right!" from my lowly 
position, and was really quite unharmed, save my crushed 
spirits. No one can serve in the cavalry and not feel humil- 
iated by a fall. I began to implore the two not to tell, and 
in their relief at my escape from serious hurt they promised. 
But for weeks they made my life a burden to me, by direct 
and indirect allusions to the accident when a group of us 
were together. They brought little All Right, the then fa- 
mous Japanese acrobat, into every conversation, and the Gen- 
eral was constantly wondering, in a seemingly innocent man- 
ner, " how an old campaigner could be unseated, under any 
circumstances." It would have been better to confess and 
pay the 'penalty, than to live thus under the sword of Dam- 
ocles. Still, I should have deprived my husband of a world 
of amusement, and every joke counted in those dull days, 
even when one was himself the victim. 

The Board in Washington then examining the officers of 
the new regiments, called old and new alike ; but in the Gen- 
eral's case, as in that of most of the officers who had seen 
service before the war, or were West Point graduates, it was 
but a form, and he was soon back in our post. 

He began then a fashion that he always kept up afterward, 



268 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

of having regular openings of his trunk for my benefit. I was 
as interested in the contents as any child. First putting me 
under promise to remain in one spot without "peeking," as 
the children say, he took out from the trunk in our room ar- 
ticle after article for me. They comprised everything a wo- 
man could wear, from gowns to stockings, with ribbons and 
hats. If all the gowns he brought were not made, he had 
dress-materials and stored-up recollections of the new modes 
of trimming. He enjoyed jokes on himself, and gave us all 
a laughable description of his discovering in the city some 
fashion that he had especially liked, when, turning in the 
crowded street, he followed at a respectful distance the woman 
wearing it, in order to commit to memory the especial style. 
Very naturally, he also took in the gait and figure of the 
stylish wearer, even after he had fixed the cut of her gown in 
his mind that he might eventually transfer it to me. Ah, 
how we tormented him when he described his discomfiture, 
and the sudden termination of his walk, when a turn in the 
street revealed the face of a negress ! 

I shall have to ask that a thought be given to our surround- 
ings, to make clear what an immense pleasure a trunkful of 
finery was at that time. There were no shops nearer than 
Leavenworth, and our faces were set westward, so there 
seemed to be no prospect of getting such an outfit for years. 
There was no one in that far country to prevent the screams 
of delight with which each gift was received, and it is im- 
possible to describe how jubilant the donor was over the suc- 
cess of his purchases. Brother Tom made a time always, 
because his name was left out, but he noted carefully if the 
General's valise held a new supply of neckties, gloves, etc., and 
by night he had usually surreptitiously transferred the entire 
contents to his own room. The first notification would be 
his appearance next morning at the breakfast-table wearing 
his brother's new things, his face perfectly solemn and inno- 
cent, as if nothing peculiar was going on. This sort of game 
never grew old, and it seemed to give them much more 
amusement than if the purchases were formally presented. 



A MEDLEY OF OFFICERS AND MEN. 269 

My husband confided to me that, knowing Tom would take 
all he could lay his hands on, he had bought twice as many 
as he needed. The truth is, it was only for the boyish fun 
tney got out of it, for he always shared everything he had 
with his brother. 

At some point in the journey East, the General had fallen 
into conversation with an officer who, in his exuberance of 
spirits at his appointment to the Seventh, had volunteered 
every detail about himself. He was coming from his exam- 
ination at Washington, and was full of excitement over the 
new regiment. He had not the slightest idea who my hus- 
band was, only that he was also an officer, but in the course 
of conversation brought his name up, giving all the accounts 
he had heard of him from both enemies and friends, and his 
own impressions of how he should like him. The General's 
love of mischief, and curiosity to hear himself so freely dis- 
cussed, led the unsuspecting man to ramble on and on, in- 
cited by an occasional query or reflection regarding the char- 
acter of the Lieutenant-colonel of the Seventh. The first 
knowledge the Lieutenant had with whom he had been talk- 
ing was disclosed to him when he came to pay the customary 
call on the return of the commanding officer at Fort Riley. 
His face was a study; perplexity and embarrassment red- 
dened his complexion almost to a purple, and he moved 
about uneasily in his chair, abashed to think he had allowed 
himself to speak so freely of a man to that person's very face. 
My husband left him but a moment in this awkward predica- 
ment, and then laughed out a long roll of merriment, grasp- 
ing the man's hand, and assured him that he must remem- 
ber his very freely expressed views were the opinions of oth- 
ers, and not his own. It was a great relief to the Lieutenant, 
when he reached his quarters, to find that he had escaped 
some dire fate, either long imprisonment or slow torture ; for 
at that time the volunteer officers had a deeply fixed terror 
of the stern, unflinching severity of regular officers. Again 
he became confidential, and told the bachelor mess. This 
was too good a chance to lose; they felt that some more fun 



270 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

could still be extracted, and immediately planned a sham 
trial. The good-natured man said his stupidity merited it, 
and asked for counsel. The case was spun out as long as it 
could be made to last, We women were admitted as audi- 
ence, and all the grave dignity of his mock affair was a nov- 
elty. 

The court used our parlor as a Hall of Justice. The coun- 
sel for the prisoner was as earnest in his defense as if great 
punishment was to be averted by his eloquence. In the day- 
time he prepared arguments, while at the same time the 
prosecuting attorney wrinkled his brows over the most con- 
vincing assaults on the poor, man, who, he vehemently as- 
serted, ought not to go at large laden with such unpardonable 
crime. The judge addressed the jury, and that solemn body 
of men disappeared into our room, perching on the trunks, 
the bed, the few chairs, to seriously discuss the ominous 
"guilty " or " not guilty." The manner of the grave and dig- 
nified judge, as he finally addressed the prisoner, admonish- 
ing him as to his future, sorrowfully announcing the decision 
of the jury as guilty, and condemning him to the penalty of 
paying a basket of champagne, was worthy of the chief ex- 
ecutor of an Eastern court. 

We almost regretted that some one else would not, by 
some harmless misdemeanor, put himself within the reach of 
such a court. This affair gave us the first idea of the clever 
men among us, for all tried to acquit themselves at their best, 
even in the burlesque trial. 

Little by little it came out what varied lives our officers had 
led heretofore. Some frankly spoke of the past, as they be- 
came acquainted, while others, making an effort to ignore 
their previous history, were found out by the letters that came 
into the post every mail, or by some one arriving who had 
known them in their other life. The best bred among them 
— one descended from a Revolutionary colonel and Governor 
of a State, the other from Alexander Hamilton — were the 
simplest and most unaffected in manner. The boaster and 
would-be aristocrat of our number had the misfortune to 



A MEDLEY OF OFFICERS AND MEN. 271 

come face to face with a townsman, who effectually silenced 
further reference to his gorgeous past. There were men who 
had studied law ; there was one who had been a stump- 
speaker in Montana politics, and at last a judge in her courts; 
another who had been a sea-captain, and was distinguished 
from a second of his name in the regiment by being called 
always thereafter "Salt Smith," while the younger was 
"Fresh Smith," or, by those who were fond of him, 
"Smithie." There was also a Member of Congress, who, 
having returned to his State after the war, had found his 
place taken and himself quite crowded out. When this 
officer reported for duty, I could not believe my eyes. But 
a few months before, in Texas, he had been such a bitter 
enemy of my husband's, that, with all the caution observed 
to keep official matters out of my life, it could not be hidden 
from me. The General, when this officer arrived, called me 
into our room and explained that, finding him without em- 
ployment in Washington when he went before the Board, he 
could not turn away from his appeal for a commission in the 
service, and had applied, without knowing he would be sent 
to our regiment. "And now, Libbie, you would not hurt my 
feelings by showing animosity and dislike to a man whose 
hair is already gray ! " There was no resisting this appeal, 
and no disguising my appreciation of the manner in which 
he treated his enemies, so his words brought me out on the 
gallery with extended hand of welcome, though I would 
sooner have taken hold of a tarantula. I never felt a mo- 
ment's regret, and he never forgot the kindness, or that he 
owed his prosperity, his whole future, in fact, to the General, 
and he won my regard by his unswerving fidelity to him from 
that hour to this. 

There were some lieutenants fresh from West Point, and 
some clerks, too, who had tried to turn themselves into mer- 
chants, and groaned over the wretched hours they had spent, 
since the close of the war, in measuring tape. We had sev- 
eral Irish officers— reckless riders, jovial companions. One 
had served in the Papal army, and had foreign medals. 



272 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

There was an Italian who had a long, strange career to draw 
upon for our amusement, and numbered, among his experi- 
ences, imprisonment for plotting the life of his king. There 
were two officers who had served in the Mexican War, and 
the ears of the subalterns were always opened to their stories 
of those days when, as lieutenants, they followed Gen. Scott 
in his march over the old Cortez highway to his victories and 
conquests. There was a Prussian among the officers, who, 
though expressing his approval of the justice and courtesy 
that the commanding officer showed in his charge of the gar- 
rison, used to infuriate the others by making invidious dis- 
tinctions regarding foreign service and our own. We had an 
educated Indian as an officer. He belonged to the Six Na- 
tions, and his father was a Scotchman; but there was no 
Scotch about him, except that he was loyal to his trusts and 
a brave soldier, for he looked like any wild man of the Plains; 
and one of his family said to him, laughingly, '.' Dress you 
up in a blanket, and you couldn't be told from a Cheyenne 
or Arrapahoe." There was a Frenchman to add to the na- 
tionalities we represented, and in our heterogeneous collection 
one company might have its three officers with parentage 
from three of the four corners of the earth. 

The immense amount of rank these new lieutenants and 
captains carried was amusing, for those who had served in 
the war still held their titles when addressed unofficially, and 
it was, to all appearances, a regiment made up of generals, 
colonels and majors. Occasionally, an officer who had served 
in the regular army many years before the war arrogantly 
lorded it over the young lieutenants. One especially, who 
saw nothing good in the service as it now was, constantly re- 
ferred to "how it was done in the old First." Having a 
young fellow appointed from civil life as his lieutenant, who 
knew nothing of army tactics or etiquette, he found a good 
subject over whom to tyrannize. He gave this lad to under- 
stand that whenever the captain made his appearance he 
must jump up, offer him a chair, and stand attention. It was, 
in fact, a servile life he was mapping out for his subordinate. 



A MEDLEY OF OFFICERS AND MEN. 2/3 

If the lad asserted himself in the slightest way, the captain 
straightened up that Prussian backbone, tapped his shoulder- 
strap, and grandiloquently observed, " Remember the goolf" 
[gulf], meaning the great chasm that intervened between a 
shoulder-strap with two bars and one with none. Even one 
knowing little of military life is aware that the "goolf" be- 
tween a captain and a second lieutenant is not one of great 
magnitude. At last the youth began to see that he was be- 
ing imposed upon, and that other captains did not so hold 
themselves toward their inferiors in rank, and he confiden- 
tially laid the case before a new arrival who had seen sendee, 
asking him how much of a stand he might make for his self- 
respect without infringing on military rules. The reply was, 
" When next he tries that game on you, tell him to go to h — 
with his gulf." The young fellow, not lacking in spirit, re- 
turned to his captain well primed for the encounter, and 
when next the gulf was mentioned, he stretched up his six 
feet of admirable physique, and advised the captain to take 
the journey "with his gulf," that had been previously sug- 
gested by his friend. 

This same young fellow was a hot-headed youth, though a 
splendid soldier, and had a knack of getting into little alter- 
cations with his brother-officers. On one occasion at our house 
during a garrison hop, he and another officer had some dis- 
pute about dancing with a young lady, and retired to the 
coat-room, too courteous to enter into a discussion in the 
presence of women. It occurred to them, as words grew 
hotter and insufficient for the gravity of the occasion, that it 
would be well to interview the commanding officer, fearing 
that they might be placed in arrest. One of them descended 
to the dancing-room, called the General one side, told the 
story, and asked permission to pound his antagonist, whom 
he considered the aggressor. The General, knowing well 
how it was himself, having, at West Point, been known as 
the cadet who said, " Stand back, boys, and let's have a fair 
fight! "gave his permission. The door of the coat-room 
closed on the contestants for the fair lady's favor, and they 



2/4 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

had it out alone. It must not, from this incident, be inferred 
that our officers belonged to a class whose idea of justice was 
" knocking down and dragging out," but, in the newness of 
our regiment, there seemed to be occasions when there was 
no recourse for impositions or wrongs, except in the natural 
way. The mettle of all was being tested with a large num- 
ber of men turned suddenly from a free life into the narrow 
limits of a garrison. Where everybody's elbow knocked his 
neighbor's, and no one could wholly escape the closest sort of 
intercourse, it was the most natural consequence that some 
jarring and grating went on. 

None of us know how much the good-nature that we pos- 
sess is due to the fact that we can take refuge in our homes 
or in flight, sometimes, from people who rasp and rub us up 
the wrong way. 

Our regiment was then a medley of incongruous elements, 
and might well have discouraged a less persevering man, in 
the attempt to mould such material into an harmonious 
whole. From the first, the effort was to establish among the 
better men, who had ambition, the proper esprit de corps re- 
garding their regiment. The General thought over carefully 
the future of this new organization, and worked constantly 
from the first days to make it the best cavalry regiment in 
the service. He assured me, when occasionally I mourned 
the inharmonious feeling that early began to crop out, that I 
must neither look for fidelity nor friendship, in its best sense, 
until the whole of them had been in a fight together; that it 
was on the battle-field, when all faced death together, where 
the truest affection was formed among soldiers. I could not 
help noting, that first year, the change from the devotion of 
my husband's Division of cavalry in the Army of the Poto- 
mac, to these new officers, who, as yet, had no affection for 
him, nor even for their regiment. He often asked me to 
have patience, not to judge too quickly of those who were to 
be our companions, doubtless for years to come, and re- 
minded me that, as yet, he had done nothing to win their 
regard or command their respect; he had come among offi- 



A MEDLEY OF OFFICERS AND MEN. 275 

cers and men as an organizer, a disciplinarian, and it was 
perfectly natural they should chafe under restraints they had 
never known before. It was a hard place for my husband to 
fill, and a most thankless task, to bring that motley crowd 
into military subjection. The mischief-makers attempted to 
report unpleasant criticisms, and it was difficult to keep in 
subjection the jealousy that existed between West Point 
graduates, volunteer officers, and civil appointees. Of course 
a furtive watch was kept on the graduates of the Military 
Academy for any evidences of assumed superiority on their 
part, or for the slightest dereliction of duty. The volunteer, 
no matter how splendid a record he had made during the war,' 
was excessively sensitive regarding the fact that he was not a 
graduated officer. My husband persistently fought against 
any line of demarkation between graduates and non-gradu- 
ates. He argued personally, and wrote for publication, that 
the war had proved the volunteer officers did just as good 
service as, and certainly were not one whit less brave than, 
West Pointers. I remember how every little slip of a West 
Pointer was caught at by the others. One morning a group 
of men were gathered about the flag-staff at guard-mount, 
making the official report as officer of the day and officer of 
the guard, when a West Pointer joined them in the irre- 
proachable uniform of a lieutenant, walking as few save 
graduates ever do walk. He gravely saluted, but, instead of 
reporting for duty, spoke out of the fullness of his heart, 
" Gentlemen, it's a boy." Of course, not a manamong them 
was insensible to the honor of being the father of a first son 
and heir, and all suspended military observances belonging 
to the morning duties, and genuinely rejoiced with the new- 
made parent; but still they gloated over the fact that there 
had been, even in such a moment of excitement, this lapse of 
military dignity in one who was considered a cut-and-dried 
soldier. 

An embarrassing position for General Custer was, that he 
had under him officers much older than himself. ' He was 
then but twenty-seven years of age, and the people who 



276 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

studied to make trouble (and how rarely are they absent from 
any community !) used this fact as a means of stirring up dis- 
sension. How thankful I was that nothing could draw him 
into difficulty from that question, for he either refused to 
listen, or heard only to forget. One day he was deeply 
moved by the Major of our regiment, General Alfred Gibbs, 
who had commanded the brigade of regular cavalry in the 
Army of the Potomac during the war, and whose soul was so 
broad and his heart so big that he was above everything 
petty or mean. My husband called me into our room and 
shut the door, in order to tell me, quietly, that some gossip 
had endeavored to spread a report that General Gibbs was 
galled by his position, and unwilling to submit to the author- 
ity of so young a man. On hearing this, he came straight- 
way to General Custer — ah, what worlds of trouble we would 
be saved if there were courage to inquire into slander! — and 
in the most earnest, frank manner assured him that he had 
never expressed such sentiments, and that their years of 
service together during the war had established an abiding 
regard for his soldierly ability that made it a pleasure to be 
in his regiment. This, from an officer who had served with 
distinction in the Mexican War, as well as done gallant ser- 
vice in an Indian campaign before the Civil War, was a most 
grateful compliment to my husband. General Gibbs was a 
famous disciplinarian, and he had also the quaintest manner 
of fetching every one to the etiquettical standard he knew to 
be necessary. He was witty, and greatly given to joking, 
and yet perfectly unswerving in the performance of the most 
insignificant duty. We have exhausted ourselves with laugh- 
ter as he described, by contortions of feature and really ex- 
traordinary facial gymnastics, his efforts to dislodge a ven- 
turesome and unmilitary fly, that had perched on his nose 
when he was conducting a dress-parade. To lift his hand 
and brush off the intruder, with along line of soldiers facing 
him, was an example he would scarcely like them to follow; 
and yet the tantalizing tickling of those fly-legs, slowly trav- 
eling over his moist and heated face, was almost too exas- 



A MEDLEY OF OFFICERS AND MEN. 277 

perating to endure. If General Gibbs felt the necessity of 
reminding any one of carelessness in dress, it was managed 
in so clever a manner that it gave no lasting offense. My 
husband, absorbed in the drilling, discipline, and organiza- 
tion of the regiment, sometimes overlooked the necessity for 
social obligations, and immediately came under the General's 
witty criticisms. If a strange officer visited our post, and any 
one neglected to call, as is considered obligatory, it was re- 
marked upon by our etiquettical mentor. If the officers were 
careless in dress, or wore semi-military clothes, something 
quite natural in young fellows who wanted to load on every- 
thing that glittered, our General Etiquette made mention of 
it. One wore an English forage-cap with a lot: of gilt braid 
on top, instead of the plain visored cap of the regulations. 
The way he came to know tljat this innovation must be sup- 
pressed, was by a request from General Gibbs to purchase it 
for his bandmaster. He himself was so strictly military that 
he could well afford to hold the others up to the mark. His 
coats were marvelous fits, and he tightly buckled in his in- 
creasing rotundity with a superb belt and clasp that had be- 
longed to his grandfather, a Wolcott in the Revolutionary 
War. 

Most women know with what obstinate determination and 
adoring fondness a man clings to some shabby article of wear- 
ing apparel. There was in our family an ancient dressing- 
gown, not the jaunty smoking - jacket that I fortunately 
learned afterward to make; but a long, clumsy, quilted mon- 
strosity that I had laboriously cobbled out with very ignorant 
fingers. My husband simply worshiped it. The garment 
appeared on one of his birthdays, and I was praised beyond 
my deserts for having put in shape such a success, and he 
could hardly slide out of his uniform, when he came from the 
office, quickly enough to enable him to jump into this soft, 
loose abomination. If he had vanity, which it is claimed is 
lodged somewhere in every human breast, it was spasmodic, 
for he not only knew that he looked like a fright, but his fam- 
ily told him this fact, with repeated variations of derision. 



278 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

When at last it became not even respectable, it was so ragged, 
I attempted to hide it, but this did no earthly good. The 
beloved possession was ferreted out, and he gaily danced up 
and down in triumph before his discomfited wife, all the rags 
and tags flaunting out as he moved. In vain General Gibbs 
asked me why I allowed such a disgraceful " old man's gar- 
ment " about. The truth was, there was not half the disci- 
pline in our family that there might have been had we been 
citizens. A woman cannot be expected to keep a man up to 
the mark in every little detail, and surely she may be excused 
if she do a little spoiling when, after months of separation, 
she is returned to the one for whom her heart has been 
wrung with anxiety. No sooner are you together than 
there comes the ever-present terror of being divided again. 

General Gibbs won at last in suppressing the old dressing- 
gown, for he begged General Custer to picture to himself the 
appearance of his entire regiment clad in long-tailed, ragged 
gowns modeled after that of their commanding officer ! In 
dozens of ways General Gibbs kept us up to the mark social- 
ly. He never drew distinctions between the old army and 
the new, as some were wont to do, and his influence in shap- 
ing our regiment in social as well as military affairs was felt 
in a marked manner, and we came to regard him as an au- 
thority, and to value his suggestions. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 

Soon after my husband returned from Washington, he 
found that Ristori was advertised in St. Louis, and as he had 
been delighted with her acting when in the East, he insisted 
upon my going there, though it was a journey of several hun- 
dred miles. The young officers urged, and the pretty Diana 
looked volumes of entreaty at me, so at last I consented to 
go, as we need be absent but a few days. At that time the 
dreaded campaign looked far off, and I was trying to cheat 
myself into the belief that there might possibly be none 
at all. 

Ristori, heard under any circumstances, was an event in a 
life; but to listen to her as we did, the only treat of the kind 
in our winter, and feeling almost certain it was the last of 
such privileges for years to come, was an occasion never to 
be forgotten. 

I do not know whether Diana collected her senses enough 
to know, at any one time, that she was listening to the most 
gifted woman in histrionic art. A civilian lover had appeared 
on the scene, and between our young officers, already far 
advanced in the dazed and enraptured state, and the new 
addition to her retinue, she was never many moments with- 
out " airy nothings " poured into her ear. The citizen and 
the officers glowered on each other, and sought in vain to 
monopolize the inamorata. Even when the thoughtless girl 
put a military cap on the head of a civilian, and told him 
that an improvement in his appearance was instantly visible, 
he still remained, and held his ground valiantly. Finally the 
most desperate of them called me to one side, and implored 
my championship. He complained bitterly that he never 

279 



28o TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

began to say what trembled on his tongue but one of those 
interfering fellows appeared and interrupted him, and now, 
as the time was passing, there remained but one chance be- 
fore he went home, where he would again be among a dozen 
other men who were sure to get in his way. He said he had 
thought over every plan, and if I would engage the interfer- 
ing ones for a half hour, he would take Diana to the hotel 
cupola, ostensibly to see the view, and if, after they were up 
there, she saw anything but him, it would not be his fault; 
for say his say he must. No one could resist such a piteous 
appeal, so I engaged the supernumerary men in conversation 
as best I could, talking against time and eyeing the door as 
anxiously as they did. I knew, when the pair returned, that 
the pent-up avowal had found utterance; but tne coquetting 
lass had left him in such a state of uncertainty that even 
" fleeing to the house-top " had not secured his future. So 
it went on, suspense and agitation increasing in the perturb- 
ed hearts, but the dallying of this coy and skillful strategist, 
wise beyond her years in some ways, seemed to prove that 
she believed what is often said, that a man is more blissful 
in uncertainty than in possession. 

Our table was rarely without guests at that time. A great 
many of the strangers came with letters of introduction to 
us, and the General superintended the arrangements for buf- 
falo-hunts, if they were to be in the vicinity of our post. 
Among the distinguished visitors was Prince Ourosoff, 
nephew of the Emperor of Russia. He was but a lad, and only 
knew that if he came west far enough, he was very likely to 
find what the atlas put down as the " Great American Des- 
ert." None of us could tell him much more of the Sahara 
of America than of his own steppes in Russia. As the years 
have advanced, the maps have shifted that imaginary desert 
from side to side. The pioneer does such wonders in culti- 
vating what was then supposed to be a barren waste, that we 
bid fair in time not to have any Sahara at all. I hardly won- 
der now at the surprise this royal scion expressed at finding 
himself among men and women who kept up the amenities 



THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 28l 

of refined life, even when living in that subterranean home 
which our Government provided for its defenders — the dug- 
out. It seems strange enough, that those of us who lived 
the rough life of Kansas's early days, did not entirely adopt 
the careless, unconventional existence of the pioneer, but 
military discipline is something not easily set aside. 

Almost our first excursionists were such a success that we 
wished they might be duplicated in those w r ho flocked out 
there in after years. Several of the party were old travelers, 
willing to undergo hardships and encounter dangers to see 
the country before it was overrun with tourists. They were 
our guests, and the manner in which they beguiled our time 
made their departure a real regret. They called themselves 
"Gideon's Band." The youngest of the party, a McCook, 
from the fighting Ohio family, was "Old Gid," while the 
oldest of all answered when they called " Young Gid." As 
they were witty, clever, conversant by actual experience with 
most things that we only read of in the papers, we found 
them a godsend. 

When such people thanked us for what simple hospitality 
we could offer, it almost came as a surprise, for we felt our- 
selves their debtors. After having written to this point in 
my narrative of our gay visit from Gideon's Band, a letter in 
response to one that I had sent to Mr. Charles G. Leland 
arrived from London. I asked him about his poem, and 
after twenty years, in which we never saw him, he recalls 
with enthusiasm his short stay with us. I have only elimi- 
nated some descriptions that he gives in the extract of the 
private letter sent then from Fort Riley— descriptions of the 
wife of the commanding officer and the pretty Diana. 
Women being in the minority, it was natural that we were 
never undervalued. Grateful as I am that he should so high- 
ly appreciate officers' wives, and much as I prize what he says 
regarding " the influences that made a man, and kept him 
what he was," I must reserve for Mr. Leland 's correspondent 
of twenty years back, and for myself, his opinion of frontier 
women. 



282 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

" Langham Hotel, Portland Place, 
"London, W., June 14, 1887. 

" Dear Mrs. Custer: — It is a thousand times more likely that 
you should forget me than that I should ever forget you, though 
it were at an interval of twice twenty years; the more so since I 
have read your admirable book, which has revived in me the 
memory of one of the strangest incidents and some of the most 
agreeable impressions of a somewhat varied and eventful life. I 
was with a party of gentlemen who had gone out to what was then 
the most advanced surveyor's camp for the Pacific Railway, in 
western Kansas. On returning, we found ourselves one evening 
about a mile from Fort Riley, where we were to be the guests of 
yourself and your husband. We had been all day in a so-called 
ambulance or wagon. The one that I shared with my friend, 
J. R. G. Hassard, of the New York Tribune, was driven by a 
very intelligent and amusing frontiersman, deeply experienced in 
Indian and Mexican life, named Brigham. Brigham thought, by 
mistake, that we had all gone to Fort Riley by some other con- 
veyance, and he was thirty or forty yards in advance, driving on 
rapidly. We, encumbered with blankets, packs and arms, had no 
mind to walk when we could ' wagon.' One man whistled, and 
all roared aloud. Then one discharged his rifle. But the wind 
was blowing away from Brigham towards us, and he heard noth- 
ing. The devil put an idea in my head, for which I have had 
many a regret since then. Infandiim reginajubes renovare dolorem. 
(' Thou, my queen, dost command me to revive a wretched sor- 
row.') For it occurred that I could send a rifle-ball so near to 
Brigham's head that he could hear the whistle, and that this would 
very naturally cause him to stop. If I could only know all, I 
would sooner have aimed between my own eyes. 

" ' Give me a gun,' I said to Colonel Lambourn. 

" ' You won't shoot at him! ' said the Colonel. 

" ' If you'll insure the mules,' I replied, ' I will insure the 
driver.' 

" I took aim and fired. The ambulance was covered, and I did 
not know that Mr. Hassard, the best fellow in the world — nemini 
secundus — was sitting inside and talking to Brigham. The bullet 
passed between their faces, which were a foot apart — less rather 
than more. 



THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 283 

' ' ' What is that ? ' cried Hassard. 

" ' Injuns/ ' replied Brigham, who knew by many an experience 
how wagons were Apached, Comanchied, or otherwise aborigi- 
nated. 

" ' Lay down flat! ' 

" He drove desperately till he thought he was out of shot, and 
then put out his head to give the Indians a taunting war-whoop 
I shall never forget the appearance of that sunburned face, with 
gold ear-rings and a vast sombrero! What was his amazement at 
seeing only friends! I did not know what Brigham's state of 
mind might be toward me, but I remembered that he gloried in 
his familiarity with Spanish, so I said to him in the Castile-soap 
dialect, ' I fired that shot; is it to be hand or knife between us ?' 
It is to his credit that he at once shook my hand, and said, ' La 
mano. ft He drove on in grim silence, and then said, ' I've driven 
for twelve years on this frontier, but I never heard, before, of 
anybody trying to stop one by shooting the driver.' 

" Another silence, broken by the following remark: ' I wish to 
God there was a gulch any where between here and the fort! I'd 
upset this party into it d n quick.' 

" But I had a great fear. It was of General Custer and what 
he would have to say to me, for recklessly imperiling the life of 
one of his drivers, to say nothing of what might have happened 
to a valuable team of mules and the wagon. It was with per- 
turbed feelings — and, ay de mi! with an evil conscience — that I 
approached him. He had been informed of the incident, but was 
neither angry nor vindictive. All he did was to utter a hearty 
laugh and say, ' I never heard before of such an original way of 
ringing a bell to call a man.' 

" In a letter written about this time to a friend, I find the fol- 
lowing: 

" 'We had not for many days seen a lady. Indeed, the only 
woman I had met for more than a week was a poor, sad soul, 
who, with her two child-daughters, had just been brought in by 
Lieutenant Hesselberger from a six-months' captivity of outrage 
and torture among the Apaches. You may imagine how I was im- 
pressed with Mrs. General Custer and her friend, Miss . 

" ' General Custer is an ideal — the ideal of frank chivalry, un- 
affected, genial humor, and that earnestness allied to originality 



284 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

which is so characteristic of the best kind of Western army man. 
I have not, in all my life, met with so many interesting types of 
character, as during this, my first journey to Kansas, but first 
among all, I place this trio. 

" ' In the evening a great musical treat awaited me. I had once 
passed six months in Bavaria, where I had learned to love the 
zither. This instrument was about as well known twenty years 
ago in America, as a harp of a thousand strings. But there was 
at the fort a Bavarian soldier, who played charmingly on it, and 
he was brought in. I remember asking him for many of his best- 
loved airs. The General and his wife impressed me as two of 
the best entertainers of guests whom I ever met. The perfection 
of this rare talent is, to enjoy yourself while making others at 
their ease and merry, and the proof lies in this, that seldom, in- 
deed, have I ever spent so pleasant an evening as that in the fort.' 

" My personal experience of General Custer does not abound 
in anecdotes, but is extremely rich in my impressions of him, as 
a type and a character, both as man and gentleman. There is 
many a man whom I have met a thousand times^ whom I hardly 
recollect at all, while I could never forget him. He was not only 
an admirable but an impressive man. One would credit anything 
to his credit, because he was so frank and earnest. One meets 
with a somewhat similar character sometimes among the Hunga- 
rians, but just such a man is as rare as the want of them in the 
world is great. 

" With sincere regards, yours truly, 

" Charles G. Leland." 

As Mr. Leland's poem, " Breitmann in Kansas," was in- 
spired partly by the buffalo-hunt and visit at our quarters, I 
quote a few stanzas:* 

" Vonce oopen a dimes, der Herr Breitmann vent oud West. 
Von efenings he was drafel mit some ladies und shendlemans, 
und he shtaid incognitus. Und dey singed songs dill py and py 
one of de ladies say: ' Ish any podies here ash know de crate 
pallad of "Hans Breitmann's Barty ? '" Den Hans said, 'I am 



* From " Hans Breitmann's Ballads," by permission of Messrs. 
T. B. Peterson & Brothers, publishers. 



THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 285 

dat rooster!' Den der Hans took a drink und a let pencil und a 
biece of baper, und goes indo himself a little dimes, and den 
mes out again mit dis boem: 



coo 



" Hans Breitmann vent to Kansas; 

He drafel fast und far. 
He rided shoost drei dousand miles 

All in one railroot car. 
He knowed foost rate how far he goed — 

He gounted all de vile. 
Dar vash shoost one bottle of champagne, 

Dat bopped at efery mile. 

" Hans Breitmann vent to Kansas; 

He went in on de loud. 
At Ellsvort in de prairie land, 

He found a pully croud. 
He looked for bleeding Kansas, 

But dat's ' blayed out,' dey say; 
De whiskey keg's de only dings 

Dat's bleedin' dere to-day. 

" Hans Breitmann vent to Kansas; 

Py shings! I dell you vot, 
Von day he met a crisly bear 

Dat rooshed him down, bei Gott! 
Boot der Breitmann took und bind der beai 

Und bleased him fery much — 
For efry vordt der crisly growled 

Vas goot Bavarian Dutch! 

" Hans Breitmann vent to Kansas! 

By donder, dat is so! 
He ridit out upon de plains 

To chase de boofalo. 
He fired his rifle at de bools, 

Und gallop troo de shmoke 
Und shoomp de canyons shoost as if 

Der tyfel vas a choke! " 



286 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Not only were a large number of officers brought together 
that winter from varied walks in life and of different national- 
ities, but the men that enlisted ranged from the highest type 
of soldier to the lowest specimens of humanity recruited in 
the crowded cities. It often happened that enlisted men 
had served an honorable record as officers in the volunteer 
service. Some had entered the regular army because their 
life was broken up by the war and they knew not how to be- 
gin a new career; others had hopes of promotion, on the 
strength of their war record, or from the promises of in- 
fluential friends. My heart is moved anew as 1 recall one 
man, who sank his name and individuality, his very self, it 
seemed, by enlistment, and as effectually disappeared as if he 
had flung himself into the river that rushed by our post. One 
night there knocked at the door of one of our officer's quar- 
ters a man who, though in citizen's dress, was at once recog- 
nized as an old comrade in the war. He had been a briga- 
dier-general of volunteers. After he had been made wel- 
come, he gave some slight account of himself, and then said 
he had about made up his mind to enlist. Our Seventh 
Cavalry officer implored him not to think of such a thing, 
pictured the existence of a man of education and refinement 
in such surroundings, and offered him financial help, should 
that be needed. He finally found the subject was adroitly 
withdrawn, and the conversation went back to old times. 
They talked on in this friendly manner until midnight, and 
then parted. The next day a soldier in fresh, bright blue 
uniform, passed the officer, formally saluting as he went by, 
and to his consternation he discovered in this enlisted man 
his friend of the night before. They never met again; the 
good-byof the midnight hour was in reality the farewell that 
one of them had intended it to be. 

This is but one of many instances where superior men, for 
one reason or another, get into the ranks of our army. If 
they are fortunate enough to fall into the hands of consid- 
erate officers, their lot is endurable; but to be assigned to 
one who is unjust and overbearing is a miserable existence. 



THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 



287 



One of our finest men was so con- 
stantly looking, in his soldiers, for 
the same qualities that he possess- 
ed, and insisted so upon the su- 
periority of his men that the offi- 
cers were wont to exclaim in good- 
natured irony, "Oh, yes, we all 
know that Hamilton's company is 
made up of dukes and earls in 
disguise." 

There were some clever rogues 
among the enlisted men, and the 
officers were as yet scarcely able 
to cope with the cunning of those 
who doubtless had intimate ac- 
quaintance with courts of justice 
and prisons in the Eastern States. 
The recruiting officer in the cities 
is not compelled, as in other occu- 
pations, to ask a character from 
a former employer. The Govern- 
ment demands able-bodied men, 
and the recruiting sergeant casts 
his critical eye over the anatom- 




GUN-STAND IN GENERAL CUSTER'S LIBRARY 



288 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ical outlines, as he would over the good points of a horse 
destined for the same service. The awful hereafter is, when 
the officer that receives this physical perfection on the front- 
ier aims to discover whether it contains a soul. 

Our guard-house at Fort Riley was outside the garrison a 
short distance, and held a goodly number of violators of the 
regulations. For several nights, at one time, strange sounds 
for such a place issued from the walls. Religion in the 
noisiest form seemed to have taken up its permanent abode 
there, and for three hours at a time singing, shouting and 
loud praying went on. There was every appearance of a re- 
vival among those trespassers. The officer of the day, in 
making his rounds, had no comment to pass upon this re- 
markable transition from card-playing and wrangling; he was 
doubtless relieved to hear the voice of the exhorters as he 
visited the guard, and indulged in the belief that the prison- 
ers were out of mischief. On the contrary, this vehement 
attack of religion covered up the worst sort of roguery. 
Night after night they had been digging tunnels under the 
stone foundation-walls, removing boards and cutting beams 
in the floor, and to deaden the sound of the pounding and 
digging some of their number were told off to sing, pray and 
shout. One morning the guard opened the door of the 
rooms in which the prisoners had been confined, and they 
were empty! Even two that wore ball and chains for serious 
offences had in some manner managed to knock them off, 
as all had swum the Smoky Hill River, and they were never 
again heard from. 

As with the history of all prisons, so it was of our little 
one. The greatest rogues were not incarcerated; they were 
too cunning to be caught. It often happened that some excel- 
lent soldiers became innocently involved in a fracas and were 
marched off to the guard-house, while the archvillain slipped 
into his place in the ranks and answered to his name at roll- 
call, apparently the most exemplary of soldiers. Several in- 
stances of what I thought to be unjust imprisonment came 
directly under my notice, and I may have been greatly in- 



THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 289 

fluenced by Eliza's pleas in their behalf. We made the ef- 
fort, and succeeded in extricating one man from his im- 
prisonment. Whether he was in reality wronged, or had only 
worked upon our sympathies, will never be known, but he 
certainly made an excellent soldier from that time until the 
end of his enlistment. Eliza, in her own quaint way, is say- 
ing to me now: "Do you mind, Miss Libbie, how me and 

you got J his parole ? He used to come to our house 

with the rest of the prisoners, to police the yard and cut the 
wood, and they used to hang round my door; the guard 
could hardly get 'em away. Well, I reckon he didn't try 
very hard, for he didn't like hard-tack no better than they 
did. One of them would speak up the minute they saw me, 
and say, ' Eliza, you hain't got no hot biscuit, have you ? ' 
Hot biscuits for prisoners! do you hear that, Miss Libbie? 
The Ginnel would be standin' at the back window, just to 
catch a chance to laugh at me if I gave the prisoners anythin' 
to eat. He'd stand at that window, movin' from one foot to 
the other, craning of his neck, and when I did give any cold 
scraps, he just bided his time, and when he saw me he would 
say, ' Well, been issuin' your rations again, Eliza ? How 
many apple-dumplin's and biscuit did they get this time?' 
Apple-dumplin's, Miss Libbie! He jest said that 'cause he 
liked 'em better than anythin' else, and s'posed I'd been giv- 
in' away some of his. But as soon as he had teased me about 
it, that was the end; he would go along about his way and 
pick up his book, when he had done his laugh. But, Miss 
Libbie, he used to kinder mistrust, if me and you was talkin' 
one side. He would say, ' What you two conspirin' up now? 
Tryin' to get some one out of jail, I s'pose. ' I remember how 

we worked for J . He came to me and told me I must 

' try to get Mrs. Custer to work for him; two words from her 
would do him more good than all the rest,' and he would 
come along sideways by your window, carrying his ball over 
his arm with the chain adanglin', and look so pitiful like, so 
you would see him and beg him off." This affair ended en- 
tirely to Eliza's satisfaction. I saw the captain of his company; 



29O TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

for though it was against my husband's wish that I should have 
anything to do with official matters, he did not object to this 
intervention; he only laughed at my credulity. The captain 
politely heard my statement of what Eliza had told me were 
J 's wrongs, and gave him parole. His sentence was re- 
scinded eventually, as he kept his promises and was a most 

faithful soldier. The next morning after J was returned 

to duty and began life anew, one of the young officers saun- 
tered into our quarters and, waving his hand with a little 
nourish, said, " I want to congratulate you on having obtain- 
ed the pardon of the greatest scamp in the regiment; he 
wouldn't steal a red-hot stove, but would wait a mighty long 
time for it to cool." Later in my story is my husband's men- 
tion, in his letters, of the very man as bearing so good a rec- 
ord that he sent for him and had him detailed at headquar- 
ters, for nothing in the world, he confessed, but because I 
had once interceded for him. 

Eliza kept my sympathies constantly aroused, with her pit- 
eous tales of the wrongs of the prisoners. They daily had 
her ear, and she appointed herself judge, jury and attorney 
for the defense. On the coldest days, when we could not 
ride and the wind blew so furiously that we were not able to 
walk, I saw from our windows how poorly clad they were, for 
they came daily, under the care of the guard, to cut the wood 
and fill the water-barrels. The General quietly endured the 
expressions of sympathy, and sometimes my indignant pro- 
tests against unjust treatment. He knew the wrathful spirit 
of the kitchen had obeyed the natural law that heat must 
rise, and treated our combined rages over the prisoners' 
wrongs with aggravating calmness. Knowing more about 
the guard-house occupants than I did, he was fortified by 
facts that saved him from expending his sympathies in the 
wrong direction. He only smiled at the plausible stories by 
which Eliza was first taken in at the kitchen door. They 
lost nothing by transmission, as she had quite an imagination 
and decidedly a dramatic delivery; and finally, when I told 
the tale, trying to perform the monstrously hard feat of telling 



THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 291 

it as it was told to me, youth, inexperience and an emotional 
temperament made a narrative so absolutely distressing that 
the General was likely to come over bodily to our side, had 
he not recalled the details of the court-martial that had tried 
the soldier. We were routed, yet not completely, for we fell 
back upon his clothes, and pleaded that, though he was 
thought to be wicked, he might be permitted to be warm. 
But the colored and white troops had to leave the field, 
"horse, foot and dragoons," when, on investigation, we 
found that the man for whom we pleaded had gambled away 
his very shirt. 

The unmoved manner in which my husband listened to 
different accounts of supposed cruelty — dropping his beloved 
newspaper with the injured air that men assume, while I sat 
by him, half crying, gesticulating, thoroughly roused in my 
defense of the injured one — was exasperating, to say the 
least; and then, at last, to have this bubble of assumed 
championship burst, and see him launch into such uproarious 
conduct when he found that the man for whom I pleaded 
was the archrogue of all — oh, women alone can picture to 
themselves what the situation must have been to poor me! 

After one of these seasons of good-natured scoffing over 
the frequency with which I was taken in, I mentally resolved 
that, though the proof I heard of the soldier's depravity was 
too strong for me to ignore, there was no contesting the fact 
that the crinainal was cold, and if I had failed in freeing him 
I might at least provide against his freezing. He was at that 
time buttoning a ragged blouse up to his chin, not only for 
warmth, but because in his evening game of poker, his com- 
rade had won the undergarment, quite superfluous, he 
thought, while warmed by the guard-house fire. I proceeded to 
shut myself in our room, and go through the General's trunk 
for something warm. The selection that I made was un- 
fortunate. There were some navy shirts of blue flannel that 
had been procured with considerable trouble from a gunboat 
in the James River the last year of the war, the like of which, 
in quality and durability, could not be found in any shop. 



292 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

The material was so good that they neither shrunk nor pull- 
ed out of shape. The broad collar had a star embroidered 
in solid silk in either corner. The General had bought these 
for their durability, but they proved to be a picturesque ad- 
dition to his gay dress; and the red necktie adopted by his 
entire Third Division of Cavalry gave a dash of vivid color, 
while the yellow hair contrasted with the dark blue of the 
flannel. The gunboats were overwhelmed with applications 
to buy, as his Division wished to adopt this feature of his 
dress also, and military tailors had many orders to reproduce 
what the General had "lighted upon," as the officers ex- 
pressed it, by accident. Really, there was no color so good 
for campaigning, as it was hard to harmonize any gray tint 
with the different blues of the uniform. Men have a way of 
saying that we women never seize their things, for barter or 
other malevolent purposes, without selecting what they es- 
pecially prize. But the General really had reason to dote 
upon these shirts. 

The rest of the story scarcely needs telling. Many injured 
husbands, whose wardrobes have been -confiscated for elee- 
mosynary purposes, will join in a general wail. The men 
that wear one overcoat in early spring, and carry another 
over their arm to their offices, uncertain, if they did not ob- 
serve this precaution, that the coming winter would not find 
these garments mysteriously metamorphosed into lace on a 
gown, or mantel ornaments, may fill in all that my story fails 
to tell. In the General's case, it was perhaps more than 
ordinarily exasperating. It was not that a creature who bar- 
gains for " gentlemen's cast-offs " had possession of some- 
thing that a tailor could not readily replace, but we were then 
too far out on the Plains to buy even ordinary blue flannel. 

As I remember myself half buried in the trunk of the com- 
manding officer, and suddenly lifted into the air with a shirt 
in one hand, my own escape from the guard-house seems 
miraculous. As it was, I was let off very lightly, ignoring 
some remarks about its being "a pretty high-handed state 
of affairs, that compels a man to lock his trunk in his own 



THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 293 

family; and that, between Tom's pilfering and his wife's, the 
commanding officer would soon be obliged to receive official 
reports in bed." 

There was very little hunting about Fort Riley in the win- 
ter. The General had shot a great many prairie chickens in 
the autumn, and hung them in the wood-house, and while 
they lasted we were not entirely dependent on Government 
beef. As the season advanced, we had only ox-tail soup and 
beef. Although the officers were allowed to buy the best 
cuts, the cattle that supplied the post with meat were far 
from being in good condition. One day our table was 
crowded with officers, some of whom had just reported for 
duty. The usual great tureen of soup was disposed of, and 
the servant brought in an immense platter, on which gener- 
ally reposed a large roast. But when the dish was placed 
before the General, to my dismay there appeared in the cen- 
tre of its wide circumference a steak hardly larger than a man's 
hand. It was a painful situation, and I blushed, gazed un- 
easily at the new-comers, but hesitated about apologies as 
they were my husband's detestation. He relieved us from 
the awful silence that fell upon all, by a peal of laughter that 
shook the table and disturbed the poor little steak in its 
lonesome bed. Eliza thrust her head in at the door, and ex- 
plained that the cattle had stampeded, and the commissary 
could not get them back in time to kill, as they did daily at 
the post. The General was perfectly unmoved, calling those 
peculiar staccato "all right!" "all right!" to poor Eliza, 
setting affairs at ease again, and asking the guests to do the 
best they could with the vegetables, bread and butter, coffee 
and dessert. 

The next day beef returned to our table, but, alas ! the po- 
tatoes gave out, and I began to be disturbed about my house- 
wifely duties. My husband begged me not to give it a 
thought, saying that Eliza would pull us through the tem- 
porary famine satisfactorily, and adding, that what was good 
enough for us was good enough for our guests. But an at- 
tack of domestic responsibility was upon me, and I insisted 



294 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

upon going to the little town near us. Under any circum- 
stances the General opposed my entering its precincts, as it 
was largely inhabited by outlaws and desperadoes, and to go 
for so small a consideration as marketing was entirely against 
his wishes. I paid dearly for my persistence; for when, after 
buying what I could at the stores, I set out to return, the 
chain bridge on which I had crossed the river in the morn- 
ing had been swept away, and the roaring torrent, that had 
risen above the high banks, was plunging along its furious 
way, bearing earth and trees in its turbid flood. I spent sev- 
eral dreary hours on the bank, growing more uneasy and re- 
morseful all the time. The potatoes and eggs that so short 
a time since I had triumphantly secured, seemed more and 
more hateful to me, as I looked at them lying in the basket 
in the bottom of the ambulance. I made innumerable re- 
solves that, so long as my husband did not wish me to con- 
cern myself about providing for our table, I never would 
attempt it again; but all these resolutions could not bring 
back the bridge, and I had to take the advice of one of our 
officers, who was also waiting to cross, and go back to the 
house of one of the merchants who sold supplies to the post. 
His wife was very hospitable, as frontier men and women 
invariably are, and next morning I was down on the bank of 
the river early, more impatient than ever to cross. What 
made the detention more exasperating was that the buildings 
of the garrison on the plateau were plainly visible from where 
we waited. Then ensued the most foolhardy conduct on my 
part, and so terrified the General when I told him afterward, 
that I came near never being trusted alone again. The most 
vexing part of it all was that I involved the officer, who was 
in town by accident, in imminent danger, for when he heard 
what I was determined to do, he had no alternative but to 
second my scheme, as no persuasion was of any avail. I in- 
duced a sergeant in charge of a small boat to take me over. 
I was frantic to get home, as for some time preparations had 
been going on for a summer campaign, and I had kept it out 
of our day as much "as I could. 



THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 295 

The General never anticipated trouble, reasoning that it 
was bad enough when it came, and we both felt that every 
hour must hold what it could of enjoyment, and not be dark- 
ened a moment if we could help it. The hours of delay on 
the bank were almost insupportable, as each one was shorten- 
ing precious time. I could not help telling the sergeant this, 
and he yielded to my entreaties— for what soldier ever refused 
our appeals ? The wind drove through the trees on the bank, 
lashing the limbs to and fro and breaking off huge branches, 
and it required almost superhuman strength to hold the frail 
boat to the slippery landing long enough to lift me in. The 
soldier at the prow held in his muscular hands a pole with an 
iron pin at the end, with which he used all his energy to push 
away the floating logs that threatened to swamp us. It was 
almost useless to attempt to steer, as the river had a current 
that it was impossible to stem. The only plan was to push 
out into the stream filled with debris, and let the current 
shoot the boat far down the river, aiming for a bend in its 
shores on the opposite side. I closed my eyes to the wild 
rush of water on all sides, shuddering at the shouts of the 
soldiers, who tried to make themselves heard above the deaf- 
ening clamor of the tempest. I could not face our danger 
and retain my self-control, and I was tortured by the thought 
of having brought peril to others. I owed my life to the strong 
and supple arms of the sergeant and the stalwart soldier who 
assisted him, for with a spring they caught the limbs of an 
overhanging tree, just at the important moment when our 
little craft swung near the bank at the river bend, and, clutch- 
ing at branches and rocks, we were pulled to the shore and 
safely landed. Why the brave sergeant even listened to such 
a wild proposition I do not know. It was the maddest sort 
of recklessness to attempt such a crossing, and the man had 
nothing to gain. With the strange, impassable gulf that 
separates a soldier from his officers and their families, my 
imploring to be taken over the river, and my overwhelming 
thanks afterward, were the only words he would ever hear 
me speak. With the officer who shared the peril, it was dif- 



296 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ferent. When we sat around the fireside again, he was the 
hero of the hour. The gratitude of the officers, the thanks 
of the women putting themselves in my place and giving him 
praise for encountering danger for another, were some sort 
of compensation. The poor sergeant had nothing; he went 
back to the barracks, and sank his individuality in the ranks, 
where the men look so alike in their uniform it is almost im- 
possible to distinguish the soldier that has acted the hero 
from one who is never aught but a poltroon. After the ex- 
citement of the peril I had passed was over, I no longer won- 
dered that there was such violent opposition to women trav- 
eling with troops. The lesson lasted me a long time, as I 
was well aware what planning and preparation it cost to take 
us women along, in any case, when the regiment was on the 
move, and to make these efforts more difficult by my own 
heedlessness was too serious a mistake to be repeated. 

In spite of the drawbacks to a perfectly successful garrison, 
which was natural in the early career of a regiment, the win- 
ter had been full of pleasure to me; but it came to a sad end- 
ing when the preparations for the departure of the troops 
began. The stitches that I put in the repairs to the blue 
flannel shirts were set with tears. I eagerly sought every op- 
portunity to prepare the camping outfit. The mess-chest 
was filled with a few strong dishes, sacks were made and filled 
with coffee, sugar, flour, rice, etc., and a few cans of fruit and 
vegetables were packed away in the bottom of the chest. 
The means of transportation were so limited that every pound 
of baggage was a matter of consideration, and my husband 
took some of the space that I thought ought to be devoted 
to comforts, for a few books that admitted of reading and re- 
reading. Eliza was the untiring one in preparing the outfit 
for the summer. She knew just when to administer comfort- 
ing words, as I sighed over the preparations, and reminded 
me that "the Ginnel always did send for you every chance 
he got, and war times on the Plains wa'n't no wuss than in 
Virginia." 

There was one joke that came up at every move we ever 




TROPHIES OF THE CHASE IN GENERAL CUSTER'S LIBRARY. 
297 



298 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

made, over which the General was always merry. The offi- 
cers, in and out of our quarters daily, were wont to observe 
the unusual alacrity that I displayed when orders came to 
move. As I had but little care or anxiety about household 
affairs, the contrast with my extreme interest in the arrange- 
ments of the mess-chest, bedding and campaigning clothes 
was certainly marked. I longed for activity, to prevent me 
from showing my heavy heart, and really did learn to be 
somewhat successful in crowding a good deal into a small 
space, and choosing the things that were most necessary. 
As the officers came in unannounced, they found me flying 
hither and thither, intent on my duties, and immediately saw 
an opportunity to tease the General, condoling with him be- 
cause, having exhausted himself in arduous packing for the 
campaign, he would be obliged to set out totally unfitted for 
the summer's hardships. After their departure, he was sure 
to turn to me, with roguery in his voice, and asked if I had 
noticed how sorry all those young fellows were for a man who 
was obliged to work so hard to get his traps ready to move. 

It was amusing to notice the indifferent manner in which 
some of the officers saw the careful and frugal preparing for 
the campaign. That first spring's experience was repeated 
in every after preparation. There were always those who 
took little or nothing themselves, but became experts at casual 
droppings in to luncheon or dinner with some painstaking 
provider, who endeavored vainly to get himself out of sight 
when the halt came for eating. This little scheme was oc- 
casionally persisted in merely to annoy one who, having shown 
some signs of parsimony, needed discipline in the eyes of 
those who really did a great deal of good by their ridicule. 
Among one group of officers, who had planned to mess to- 
gether, the only provision was a barrel of eggs. It is only 
necessary to follow a cavalry column over the crossing of one 
creek, to know the exact condition that such perishable food 
would be in at the end of the first day. There were two of 
the " plebes," as the youngest of the officers were called — as 
I recall them, bright, boyish, charming fellows — who openly 



THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 299 

rebelled against the rebuffs they claimed were given them, 
when they attempted to practice the dropping-in plan at 
another's meals. 

After one of these sallies on the enemy, they met the re- 
pulse with the announcement that if "those stingy old molly- 
coddles thought they had nothing to eat in their own outfit, 
they would show them," and took the occasion of one of 
their birthdays to prove that their resources were unlimited. 
Though the two endeavored to conceal the hour and place 
of this fete, a persistent watcher discovered that the birthday 
breakfast consisted of a bottle of native champagne and corn 
bread. The hospitality of officers is too well known to make 
it necessary to explain that those with any tendency to penu- 
riousness were exceptions. An army legend is in existence 
of an officer who would not allow his hospitality to be set 
aside, even though he was very short of supplies. Being an 
officer of the old army, he was as formal over his repast as if 
it were abundant, and, with all ceremony, had his servant pass 
the rice. The guest, thinking it the first course, declined, 
whereupon the host, rather offended, replied, "Well, if you 
don't like the rice, help yourself to the mustard." This be- 
ing the only other article on the bill of fare, there need be 
no doubt as to his final choice. When several officers decide 
to mess together on a campaign, each one promises to pro- 
vide some one necessary supply. On one of these occasions, 
after the first day's march was ended, and orders for dinner 
were given to the servant, it was discovered that all but one 
had exercised his own judgment regarding what was the most 
necessary provision for comfort, and the one that had brought 
a loaf of bread instead of a demijohn of whiskey was berated 
for his choice. 

In the first days of frontier life, our people knew but little 
about preparations for the field, and it took some time to 
realize that they were in a land where they could not live 
upon the country. It was a severe and lasting lesson to those 
using tobacco, when they found themselves without it, and 
so far from civilization that there was no opportunity of re- 



300 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

plenishing their supply. On the return from the expedition, 
the injuries as well as the enjoyments are narrated. Some- 
times we women, full of sympathy for the privations that had 
been endured, found that these were injuries ; sometimes we 
discovered that imagination had created them. We enjoyed, 
maliciously I am afraid, the growling of one man who never 
erred in any way, and consequently had no margin for any 
one that did ; calculating and far-seeing in his life, he felt no 
patience for those who, being young, were yet to learn those 
lessons of frugality that were born in him. He was still wrath- 
ful when he gave us an account of one we knew to be delight- 
fully impudent when he was bent on teasing. When the 
provident man untied the strings of his tobacco-pouch, and 
settled himself for a smoke, the saucy young lieutenant was 
sure to stroll that way, and in tones loud enough for those 
near to hear him, drawl out, " I've got a match ; if any other 
fellow's got a pipe and tobacco, I'll have a smoke." 

The expedition that was to leave Fort Riley was commanded 
by General Hancock, then at the head of the Department of 
the Missouri. He arrived at our post from Fort Leavenworth 
with seven companies of infantry and a battery of artillery. 
His letters to the Indian agents of the various tribes give the 
objects of the march into the Indian country. He wrote : 

" I have the honor to state, for your information, that I am 
at present preparing an expedition to the Plains, which will 
soon be ready to move. My object in doing so at this time 
is, to convince the Indians within the limits of this Depart- 
ment that we are able to punish any of them who may molest 
travelers across the Plains, or who may commit other hostili- 
ties against the whites. We desire to avoid, if possible, any 
troubles with the Indians, and to treat them with justice, and 
according to the requirements of our treaties with them ; and 
I wish especially, in my dealings with them, to act through 
the agents of the Indian Department as far as it is possible 
to do so. If you, as their agent, can arrange these matters 
satisfactorily with them, we shall be pleased to defer the 
whole subject to you. In case of your inability to do so, I 



THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 301 

would be pleased to have you accompany me when I visit the 
country of your tribes, to show that the officers of the Gov- 
ernment are acting in harmony. I shall be pleased to talk 
with any of the chiefs whom we may meet. I do not expect 
to make war against any of the Indians of your agency, un- 
less they commence war against us." 

In General Custer's account, he says that "the Indians 
had been guilty of numerous thefts and murders during the 
preceding summer and autumn, for none of which had they 
been called to account. They had attacked the stations of 
the overland mail-route, killed the employees, burned the 
stations and captured the stock. Citizens had been mur- 
dered in their homes on the frontier of Kansas; and murders 
had been committed on the Arkansas route. The principal 
perpetrators of these acts were the Cheyennes and Sioux. 
The agent of the former, if not a party to the murder on the 
Arkansas, knew who the guilty persons were, yet took no 
steps to bring the murderers to punishment. Such a course 
would have interfered with his trade and profits. It was not 
to punish for these sins of the past that the expedition was 
set on foot, but, rather, by its imposing appearance and its 
early presence in the Indian country, to check or intimidate 
the Indians from a repetition of their late conduct. During 
the winter the leading chiefs and warriors had threatened 
that, as soon as the grass was up, the tribes would combine 
in a united outbreak along the entire frontier." 

There had been little opportunity to put the expedition 
out of our minds for some time previous to its departure. 
The sound from the blacksmith's shop, of the shoeing of 
horses, the drilling on the level ground outside of the post, 
and the loading of wagons about the quartermaster and com- 
missary storehouses, went on all day long. At that time the 
sabre was more in use than it was later, and it seemed to me 
that I could never again shut my ears to the sound of the 
grindstone, when I found that the sabres were being sharp- 
ened. The troopers, when mounted, were curiosities, and a 
decided disappointment to me. The horse, when prepared 



302 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

for the march, barely showed head and tail. My ideas of the 
dashing trooper going out to war, clad in gay uniform and 
curbing a curveting steed, faded into nothingness before the 
reality. Though the wrapping together of the blanket, over- 
coat and shelter-tent is made a study of the tactics, it could 
not be reduced to anything but a good-sized roll at the back 
of the saddle. The carbine rattled on one side of the soldier, 
slung from the broad strap over his shoulder, while a frying- 
pan, a tin-cup, a canteen, and a haversack of hardtack clat- 
tered and knocked about on his other side. There were pos- 
sibly a hundred rounds of ammunition in his cartridge-belt, 
which took away all the symmetry that his waist might other- 
wise have had. If the company commander was not too 
strict, a short butcher-knife, thrust into a home-made leather 
case, kept company with the pistol. It was not a murder- 
ous weapon, but was used to cut up game or slice off the 
bacon, which, sputtering in the skillet at evening camp-fire, 
was the main feature of the soldier's supper. The tin uten- 
sils, the carbine and the sabre, kept up a continual din, as 
the horses seemingly crept over the trail at the rate of three 
to four miles an hour. In addition to the cumbersome load, 
there were sometimes lariats and iron pichet-pins slung on 
one side of the saddle, to tether the animals when they 
grazed at night. There was nothing picturesque about this 
lumbering cavalryman, and, besides, our men did not then 
sit their horses with the serenity that they eventually attained. 
If the beast shied or kicked — for the poor thing was itself 
learning to do soldiering, and occasionally flung out his heels, 
or snatched the bit in his mouth in protest — it was a question 
whether the newly made Mars would land on the crupper or 
hang helplessly among the domestic utensils suspended to 
his saddle. How sorry I was for them, they were so bruised 
and lamed by their first lessons in horsemanship. Every one 
laughed at every one else, and this made it seem doubly try- 
ing to me. I remembered my own first lessons among fear- 
less cavalrymen — a picture of a trembling figure, about as un- 
certain in the saddle as if it were a wave of the sea, the hands 



THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 303 

cold and nerveless, and, I regret to add, the tears streaming 
down my cheeks! These recollections made me writhe when 
I saw a soldier describing an arc in the air, and his self-freed 
horse galloping off to the music of tin and steel in concert, 
for no such compulsory landing was ever met save by a roar 
of derision from the column. Just in proportion as I had 
suffered for their misfortunes, did I enjoy the men when, 
after the campaign, they returned, perfect horsemen and 
with such' physiques as might serve for a sculptor's model. 

At the time the expedition formed at Fort Riley, I had 
little realization what a serious affair an Indian campaign was. 
We had heard of the outrages committed on the settlers, the 
attacking of the overland supply-trains, and the burning of 
the stage-stations; but the rumors seemed to come from so 
far away that the reality was never brought home to me until 
I saw for myself what horror attends Indian depredations. 
Even a disaster to one that seemed to be of our own family, 
failed to implant in me that terror of Indians which, a month 
or two later, I realized to its fullest extent by personal dan- 
ger. I must tell my reader, by going back to the days of the 
war, something of the one that first showed us what Indian 
warfare really was. It was a sad preparation for the cam- 
paign that followed. 

After General Custer had been promoted from a captain to 
a brigadier-general, in 1863, his brigade lay quietly in camp 
for a few days, to recruit before setting out on another raid. 
This gave the unusual privilege of lying in bed a little later 
in the morning, instead of springing out before dawn. For 
several mornings in succession, my husband told me, he saw 
a little boy steal through a small opening in the tent, take 
out his clothes and boots, and after a while creep back with 
them, brushed and folded. At last he asked Eliza where on 
earth that cadaverous little image came from, and she ex- 
plained that it was " a poor little picked sparrow of a chile, 
who had come hangin' aroun' the camp-fire, mos' starved," 
and added, " Now, Ginnel, you mustn't go and turn him off, 
for he's got nowhar to go, and 'pears like he's crazy to wait 



304 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

on you." The General questioned him, and found that the 
boy, being unhappy at home, had run away. Enough of his 
sad life was revealed to convince the General that it was use- 
less to attempt to return him to his Eastern home, for he was 
a determined little fellow, and there was no question that he 
would have fled again. His parents were rich, and my hus- 
band evidently knew who they were; but the story was confi- 
dential, so I never knew anything of him, except that he was 
always showing signs of good-breeding, even though he lived 
about the camp-fire. A letter that my husband wrote to his 
own home at that time, spoke of a hound puppy that one of 
his soldiers had given to him, and then of a little waif, called 
Johnnie, whom he had taken as his servant. " The boy," 
he wrote, " is so fond of the pup he takes him to bed with 
him." Evidently the child began his service with devotion, 
for the General adds: " I think he would rather starve than 
to see me go hungry. I have dressed him in soldier's clothes, 
and he rides one of my horses on the march. Returning 
from the march one day, I found Johnnie with his sleeves 
rolled up. He had washed all my soiled clothes and hung 
them on the bushes to dry. Small as he is, they were very 
well done." 

Soon after Johnnie became my husband's servant, we were 
married, and I was taken down to the Virginia farm-house, 
that was used as brigade headquarters. By this time, Eliza 
had initiated the boy into all kinds of work. She, in turn, 
fed him, mended his clothes, and managed him, lording it 
over the child in a lofty but never unkind manner. She had 
tried to drill him to wait on the table, as she had seen the 
duty performed on the old plantation. At our first dinner 
he was so bashful I thought he would drop everything. My 
husband did not believe in having a head and foot to the 
table when we were alone, so poor little Johnnie was asked 
to put my plate beside the General's. Though he was so 
embarrassed in this new phase of his life, he was never so in- 
timidated by the responsibility Eliza had pressed upon him 
that he was absent-minded or confused regarding one point: 



THE COURSE OF TRUE EOVE. 305 

he invariably passed each dish to the General first. Possibly 
my husband noticed it. I certainly did not. There was a 
pair of watchful eyes at a crack in the kitchen-door, which 
took in this little incident. One day the General came into 
our room laughing, his eyes sparkling with fun over Eliza's 
description of how she had noticed Johnnie always serving 
the General first, and had labored with him in secret, to teach 
him to wait on the lady first. " It's manners," she said, be- 
lieving that was a crushing argument. But Johnnie, usually 
obedient, persistently refused, always replying that the Gen- 
eral was the one of us two that ranked, and he ought to be 
served first. 

At the time of General Kilpatrick's famous raid, when he 
went to take Richmond, General Custer was ordered to make 
a detour in an opposite direction, in order to deceive the 
Confederate army as to the real object to be accomplished. 
This ruse worked so successfully, that General Custer and his 
command were put in so close and dangerous a situation it 
was with difficulty that any of them escaped. The General 
told me that when the pursuit of the enemy was hottest, and 
everyone doing his utmost to escape, he saw Johnnie driving 
a light covered wagon at a gallop, which was loaded with 
turkeys and chickens. He had received his orders from 
Eliza, before setting out, to bring back something for the 
mess, and the boy had carried out her directions with a ven- 
geance. He impressed into his service the establishment 
that he drove, and filled it with poultry. Even in the melee 
and excitement of retreat, the General was wonderfully 
amused, and amazed too, at the little fellow's fearlessness. 
He was too fond of him to leave him in danger, so he galloped 
in his direction and called to him, as he stood up lashing his 
horse, to abandon his capture or he would be himself a 
prisoner. The boy obeyed, but hesitatingly, cut the harness, 
sprang upon the horse's unsaddled back, and was soon with 
the main column. The General, by his delay, was obliged to 
take to an open field to avoid capture, and leap a high fence 
in order to overtake the retreating troops. 



306 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

He became more and more interested in the boy, who was 
such a combination of courage and fidelity, and finally ar- 
ranged to have him enlist as a soldier. The war was then 
drawing to its close, and he secured to the lad a large boun- 
ty, which he placed at interest for him, and after the surren- 
der, persuaded Johnnie to go to school. It was difficult to 
induce him to leave; but my husband realized what injustice 
it was to keep him in the menial position to which he desired 
to return, and finally left him, with the belief that he had 
instilled some ambition into the boy. 

A year and a half afterward, as we were standing on the 
steps of the gallery of our quarters at Fort Riley, we noticed 
a stripling of a lad walking toward us, with his head hang- 
ing on his breast, in the shy, embarrassed manner of one who 
doubts his reception. With a glad cry, my husband called 
out that it was Johnnie Cisco, and bounded down the steps 
to meet him. After he was assured of his welcome, he told 
us that it had been impossible for him to stay away, he long- 
ed so constantly to be again with us, and added that if we 
would only let him remain, he would not care what he did. 
Of course, the General regretted the giving up of his school; 
but, now that he had made the long journey, there was no 
help for it, and he decided that he should continue with us 
until he could find him employment, for he was determined 
that he should not reenlist. The boy's old and tried friend, 
Eliza, at once assumed her position of " missus," and, kind- 
hearted tyrant ! gave him every comfort and made him her 
vassal, without a remonstrance from the half-grown man, for 
he was only too glad to be in the sole home he knew, no 
matter on what terms. Soon after his coming, the General 
obtained from one of the managers of the Wells Fargo Ex- 
press Company a place of messenger; and the recommenda- 
tion he gave the boy for honesty and fidelity was confirmed 
over and over again by the officers of the express line. He 
was known on the entire route from Ogden to Denver, and 
was entrusted with immense amounts of gold in its transmis- 
sion from the Colorado mines to the States. Several times 



THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 307 

he came to our house for a vacation, and my husband had 
always the unvarying and genuine welcome that no one 
doubted when once given, and he did not fail to praise and 
encourage the friendless fellow. Eliza, after learning what 
the lad had passed through, in his dangers from Indians, 
treated him like a conquering hero, but alternately bullied 
and petted him still. At last there came a long interval be- 
tween his- visits, and my husband sent to the express people 
to inquire. Poor Johnnie had gone like many another brave 
employee of that venturesome firm. In a courageous defense 
of the passengers and the company's gold, when the stage 
was attacked, he had been killed by the Indians. Eliza kept 
the battered valise that her favorite had left with us, and 
mourned over it as if it had been something human. I found 
her cherishing the bag in a hidden corner, and recalling to 
me, with tears, how warm-hearted Johnnie was, saying that 
the night the news of her old mother's death came to her 
from Virginia, he had sat up till daybreak to keep the fire 
going. " Miss Libbie, I tole him to go to bed, but he said, 
'No, Eliza, I can't do it, when you are in trouble: when I 
had no friends, and couldn't help myself, you helped me.'" 
After that, the lad was always "poor Johnnie,' 5 and many 
a boy with kinsfolk of his own is not more sincerely 
mourned. 

As the days drew nearer for the expedition to set out, my 
husband tried to keep my spirits up by reminding me that 
the council to be held with the chiefs of the warlike tribes, 
when they reached that part of the country infested with the 
marauding Indians, was something he hoped might result in 
our speedy reunion. He endeavored to induce me to think, 
as he did, that the Indians would be so impressed with the 
magnitude of the expedition, that, after the council, they 
would accept terms and abandon the war-path. Eight com- 
panies of our own regiment were going out, and these, with 
infantry and artillery, made a force of fourteen hundred men. 
It was really a large expedition, for the Plains; but the recol- 
lections of the thousands of men in the Third Cavalry Divis- 



308 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ion, which was the General's command during the war, made 
the expedition seem too small, even for safety. 

No one can enumerate the terrors, imaginary and real, 
that filled the hearts of women on the border in those des- 
perate days. The buoyancy of my husband had only a mo- 
mentary effect in the last hours of his stay. That time seemed 
to fly fast; but no amount of excitement and bustle of prepa- 
ration closed my eyes, even momentarily, to the dragging 
hours that awaited me. Such partings are such a torture 
that it is difficult even to briefly mention them. My husband 
added another struggle to my lot by imploring me not to let 
him see the tears that he knew, for his sake, I could keep 
back until he was out of sight. Though the band played its 
usual departing tune, " The Girl I Left Behind Me," if there 
was any music in the notes, it was all in the minor key to the 
men who left their wives behind them. No expedition goes 
out with shout and song, if loving, weeping women are left 
behind. Those who have not assumed the voluntary fetters 
that bind us for weal or for woe, and render it impossible to 
escape suffering while those we love suffer, or rejoicing 
while those to whom we are united are jubilant, felt too keen- 
ly for their comrades when they watched them tear them- 
selves from clinging arms inside the threshold of their homes, 
even to keep up the stream of idle chaffing that only such 
occasions can stop. There was silence as the column left the 
garrison. Alas ! the closed houses they left were as still as 
if death had set its seal upon the door; no sound but the 
sobbing and moans of women's breaking hearts. 

Eliza stood guard at my door for hours and hours, until I 
had courage, and some degree of peace, to take up life again. 
A loving, suffering woman came to sleep with me for a night 
or two. The hours of those first wakeful nights seemed end- 
less. The anxious, unhappy creature beside me said, gently, 
in the small hours, " Libbie, are you awake?" " Oh, yes," 
I replied, "and have been for ever so long." "What are 
you doing?" " Saying over hymns, snatches of poetry, the 
Lord's Prayer backward, counting, etc., to try to put myself 



THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. 309 

to sleep." "Oh, say some rhyme to me, in mercy's name, 
for I am past all hope of sleep while I am so unhappy ! " 
Then I repeated, over and over again, a single verse, writ- 
ten, perhaps, by some one who, like ourselves, knew little of 
the genius of poetry, but, alas ! much of what makes up the 
theme of all the sad verses of the world: 

" There's something in the parting hour 

That chills the warmest heart; 
But kindred, comrade, lover, friend, 

Are fated all to part. 
But this I've seen, and many a pang 

Has pressed it on my mind — 
The one that goes is happier 

Than he who stays behind." 

Perhaps after I had said this, and another similar verse, 
over and over again, in a sing-song, droning voice, the reg- 
ular breathing at my side told me that the poor, tired heart 
had found temporary forgetful ness; but when we came to the 
sad reality of our lonely life next day, every object in our 
quarters reminded us what it is to " stay behind." There are 
no lonely women who will not realize how the very chairs, or 
anything in common use, take to themselves voices and call 
out reminders of what has been and what now is. Fill up 
the time as we might, there came each day, at twilight, an 
hour that should be left out of every solitary life. It is meant 
only for the happy, who need make no subterfuges to fill up 
hours that are already precious. 



CHAPTER XV. 



A PRAIRIE FIRE. 



It was a great change for us from the bustle and excite- 
ment of the cavalry, as they prepared for the expedition, to 
the dull routine of an infantry garrison that replaced the 
dashing troopers. It was intensely quiet, and we missed the 
clatter of the horses' hoofs, the click of the curry-comb, 
which had come from the stables at the morning-and even- 
ing grooming of the animals, the voices of the officers drill- 
ing the recruits, the constant passing and repassing of mount- 
ed men in front of our quarters; above all, the enlivening 
trumpet-calls ringing out all day, and we rebelled at the drum 
and bugle that seemed so tame in contrast. There were no more 
long rides for me, for Custis Lee was taken out at my request, 
as I feared no one would give him proper care at the post. 
Even the little chapel where the officers' voices had added 
their music to the chants, was now nearly deserted. The 
chaplain was an interesting man, and the General and most 
of the garrison had attended the services during the winter. 
Only three women were left to respond, and, as we had all 
been reared in other churches, we quaked a good deal, for 
fear our responses would not come in the right place. They 
did not lack in earnestness, for when had we lonely creatures 
such cause to send up petitions as at that time, when those 
for whom we prayed were advancing into an enemy's coun- 
try day by day ! Never had the beautiful Litany, that asks 
deliverance for all in trouble, sorrow, perplexity, temptation, 
borne such significance to us as then. No one can dream, 
until it is brought home to him, how space doubles, trebles, 
quadruples, when it is impossible to see the little wire that, 

310 



A PRAIRIE FIRE. 311 

fragile as it seems, chains one to the absent. It is difficult 
to realize, now that our country is cobwebbed with tele- 
graph lines, what a despairing feeling it was, in those days, 
to get far beyond the blessed nineteenth-century mode of 
communication. He who crosses the ocean knows a few 
days of such uncertainty, but over the pathless sea of West- 
ern prairie it was chaos, after the sound of the last horse's 
hoof was lost in the distance. 

We had not been long alone when a great danger threat- 
ened us. The level plateau about our post, and the valley 
along the river near us, were covered with dry prairie grass, 
which grows thickly and is matted down into close clumps. 
It was discovered one day, that a narrow thread of fire was 
creeping on in our direction, scorching these tufts into shriv- 
elled brown patches that were ominously smoking when first 
seen. As I begin to write of what followed, I find it diffi- 
cult; for even those living in Western States and Territories 
regard descriptions of prairie-fires as exaggerated, and are 
apt to look upon their own as the extreme to which they 
ever attain. I have seen the mild type, and know that a 
horseman rides through such quiet conflagrations in safety. 
The trains on some of our Western roads pass harmless 
through belts of country when the flames are about them; 
there is no impending peril, because the winds are moderate. 
When a tiny flame is discovered in Kansas, or other States, 
where the wind blows a hurricane so much of the time, there 
is not a moment to lose. Although we saw what was hardly 
more than a suspicion of smoke, and the slender, sinuous, 
red tongue along the ground, we women had read enough of 
the fires in Kansas to know that the small blaze meant that 
our lives were in jeopardy. Most of us were then unacquainted 
with those precautions which the experienced Plainsman 
takes, and, indeed, we had no ranchmen near us to set us 
the example of caution which the frontiersman so soon learns. 
We should have had furrows ploughed around the entire 
post in double lines, a certain distance apart, to check the 
approach of fire. There was no time to fight the foe with a 



312 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

like weapon, by burning over a portion of the grass between 
the advancing blaze and our post. The smoke rose higher 
and higher beyond us, and curling, creeping fire began to 
ascend into waves of flame with alarming rapidity, and in an 
incredibly short time we were overshadowed with a dark pall 
of smoke. 

The Plains were then new to us. It is impossible to ap- 
preciate their vastness at first. The very idea was hard to 
realize, that from where we lived we looked on an uninter- 
rupted horizon. We felt that it must be the spot where some 
one first said, "The sky fits close down all around." It fills 
the soul with wonder and awe to look upon the vastness of 
that sea of land for the first time. As the sky became lurid, 
and the blaze swept on toward us, surging to and fro in wav- 
ing lines as it approached nearer and nearer, it seemed that 
the end of the world, when all shall be rolled together as a 
scroll, had really come. The whole earth appeared to be on 
fire. The sky was a sombre canopy above us, on which 
flashes of brilliant light suddenly appeared as the flames rose, 
fanned by a fresh gust of wind. There were no screams nor 
cries, simply silent terror and shiverings of horror, as we wo- 
men huddled together to watch the remorseless fiend ad- 
vancing with what appeared to be inevitable annihilation of 
the only shelter we had. Every woman's thoughts turned to 
her natural protector, now far away, and longed with unutter- 
able longing for one who, at the approach of danger, stood 
like a bulwark of courage and defense. The river was half a 
mile away, and our feet could not fly fast enough to reach 
the water before the enemy would be upon us. There was 
no such a thing as a fire-engine. The Government then had 
not even provided the storehouses and quarters with the Bab- 
cock Extinguisher. We were absolutely powerless, and could 
only fix our fascinated gaze upon the approaching foe. 

In the midst of this appalling scene, we were startled anew 
by a roar and shout from the soldiers' barracks. Some one 
had, at last, presence of mind to marshal the men into line, 
and, assuming the commanding tone that ensures action and 



A PRAIRIE FIRE. 313 

obedience in emergencies, gave imperative orders. Every 
one — citizen employees, soldiers and officers — seized gunny 
sacks, blankets, poles, anything available that came in their 
way, and raced wildly beyond the post into the midst of the 
blazing grass. Forming a cordon, they beat and lashed the 
flames with the blankets, so twisted as to deal powerful blows. 
It was a frenzied fight. The soldiers yelled, swore and leaped 
frantically upon beds of blazing grass, condensing a lifetime 
of riotous energy into these perilous moments. We women 
were not breathless and trembling over fears for ourselves 
alone: our hearts were filled with terror for the brave men 
who were working for our deliverance. They were men to 
whom we had never spoken, nor were we likely ever to speak 
to them, so separated are the soldiers in barracks from an of- 
ficer's household. Sometimes we saw their eyes following us 
respectfully, as we rode about the garrison, seeming to have 
in them an air of possession, as if saying, " That's our cap- 
tain's or our colonel's wife." Now, they were showing their 
loyalty, for there are always a few of a regiment left behind 
to care for the company property, or to take charge of the 
gardens for the soldiers. These men, and all the other brave 
fellows with them, imperiled their lives in order that the offi- 
cers who had gone out for Indian warfare, might come home 
and find " all's well." Let soldiers know that a little knot of 
women are looking to them as their saviors, and you will see 
what nerves of iron they have, what inexhaustible strength 
they can exhibit. 

No sooner had the flames been stamped out of one portion 
of the plain, than the whole body of men were obliged to 
rush off in another direction and begin the thrashing and 
tramping anew. It seemed to us that there was no such 
thing as conquering anything so insidious. But the wind, 
that had been the cause of our danger, saved us at last. That 
very wind which we had reviled all winter for its doleful howl- 
ings around our quarters and down the chimneys; that self- 
same wind that had infuriated us by blowing our hats off 
when we went out to walk, or impeded our steps by twisting 



314 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

our skirts into hopeless folds about our ankles — was now to 
be our savior. Suddenly veering, as is its fashion in Kansas, 
it swept the long tongues of flame over the bluffs beyond us, 
where the lonely coyote and its mate were driven into their 
lair. By this vagary of the element, that is never anywhere 
more variable than in Kansas, our quarters, our few posses- 
sions, and no doubt our lives, were saved. With faces be- 
grimed and blistered, their clothes black with soot and smoke, 
their hands burnt and numb from violent*effort, the soldiers 
and citizen employees dragged their exhausted bodies back 
to garrison, and dropped down anywhere to rest. 

The tinge of green that had begun to appear was now gone, 
and the charred, smoke-stained earth spread as far as we 
could see, making more desolate the arid, treeless country 
upon which we looked It was indeed a blackened and dis- 
mal desert that encircled us, and we knew that we were de- 
prived of the delight of the tender green of early spring, 
which carpets the Plains for a brief time before the sun 
parches and turns to russet and brown the turf of our Western 
prairies. 

As we sat on the gallery, grieving over this ruin of spring, 
Mrs. Gibbs gathered her two boys closer to her, as she shud- 
dered over another experience with prairie fire, where her 
children were in peril. The little fellows, in charge of a 
soldier, were left temporarily on the bank of a creek. Imag- 
ine the horror of a mother who finds, as she did, the grass 
on fire and a broad strip of flame separating her from her 
children! Before the little ones could follow their first in- 
stinct, and thereby encounter certain death by attempting to 
run through the fire to their mother, the devoted soldier, 
who had left them but a moment, realizing that they would 
instantly seek their mother, ran like an antelope to where the 
fire-band narrowed, leaped the flame, seized the little men, 
and plunged with mad strides to the bank of the creek, where, 
God be praised! nature provides a refuge from the relentless, 
foe of our Western plains. 

In our Western prairie fires the flame is often a mile long, 



A PRAIRIE FIRE. 315 

perhaps not rising over a foot high, but, sweeping from six 
to ten miles an hour, it requires the greatest exertion of the 
ranchmen, with all kinds of improvised flails, to beat out the 
fire. The final resort of a frontiersman, if the flames are too 
much for him to overcome, is to take refuge with his family, 
cattle, horses, etc., in the garden, where the growing vege- 
tables make an effectual protection. Alas, when he finds it 
safe to venture from the green oasis, the crops are not only 
gone, but the roots are burned, and the ground valueless from 
the parching of the terrible heat. When a prairie fire is rag- 
ing at ten miles an hour, the hurricane lifts the tufts of 
loosened bunch grass, which in occasional clumps is longer 
than the rest, carrying it far beyond the main fire, and thus 
starting a new flame. No matter how weary the pioneer may 
be after a day's march, he neglects no precautions that can 
secure him from fire. He twists into wisp the longest of the 
bunch grass, trailing it around the camp; the fire thus started 
is whipped out by the teamsters, after it has burned over a 
sufficient area for safety. They follow the torch of the leader 
with branches of the green willow or twigs of Cottonwood 
bound together. 

The first letters, sent back from the expedition by scouts, 
made red-letter days for us. The official envelope, stained 
with rain and mud, bursting open with the many pages crowd- 
ed in, sometimes even tied with a string by some messenger 
through whose hands the parcel passed, told stories of the 
vicissitudes of the missive in the difficult journey to our post. 
These letters gave accounts of the march to Fort Larned, 
where a great camp was established, to await the arrival of 
the chiefs with whom the council was to be held. While the 
runners were absent on their messages to the tribes, some 
effort was made to protect the troops against the still sharp 
winds of early spring. The halt and partly permanent camp 
was most fortunate; for had the troops been on the march, a 
terrible snow-storm that ensued would have wrought havoc, 
for the cold became so intense, and the snow so blinding, it 
was only through great precautions that loss of life was pre- 




3i6 



A PRAIRIE F.I'RE. 317 

vented. The animals were given an extra ration of oats, 
while the guards were obliged to take whips and strike at the 
horses on the picket-line, to keep them in motion and pre- 
vent them from freezing. The snow was eight inches deep, 
a remarkable fall for Kansas at that time of the year. As we 
read over these accounts, which all the letters contained, 
though mine touched lightly on the subject, owing to my 
husband's fixed determination to write of the bright side, we 
felt that we had hardly a right to our fires and comfortable 
quarters. There were officers on the expedition who could 
not keep warm. A number were then enduring their first 
exposure to the elements, and I remember that several, who 
afterward became stalwart, healthy men, were then partial 
invalids, owing to sedentary life in the States, delicate lungs 
or climatic influences. 

In my husband's letters there was a laughable description 
of his lending his dog to keep a friend warm. The officer 
came into his tent after dark, declaring that no amount 
of bedding had any effect in keeping out the cold, and he 
had come to borrow a dog, to see if he could have one night's 
uninterrupted rest. Our old hound was offered, because he 
could cover such a surface, for he was a big brute, and when 
he once located himself he rarely moved until morning. My 
husband forgot, in giving Rover his recommendation, to men- 
tion a habit he had of sleeping audibly, besides a little fashion 
of twitching his legs and thumping his cumbrous tail, in 
dreams that were evidently of the chase, or of battles he was 
living over, in which "Turk," the bull-dog, was being van- 
quished. He was taken into the neighbor's tent, and in- 
duced to settle for the night, after the General's coaxing and 
pretense of going to sleep beside him. Later, when he went 
back to see how Rover worked as a portable furnace, he 
found the officer sound asleep on his back, emitting such 
nasal notes as only a stout man is equal to, while Rover lay 
sprawled over the broad chest of his host, where he had crept 
after he was asleep, snoring with an occasional interlude of a 
long-drawn snort, introduced in a manner peculiar to fox- 



318 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

hounds. The next morning my husband was not in the least 
surprised, after what he had seen the night before, to receive 
a call from the officer, who presented a request to exchange 
dogs. He said that when he made the proposal, he did not 
expect to have a bedfellow that would climb up over his lungs 
and crush all the breath out of his body. Instead of showing 
proper sympathy, the General threw himself on his pallet 
and roared with laughter. 

All these camp incidents brightened up the long letters, 
and kept me from realizing, as I read, what were the realities 
of that march, undertaken so early in the season. But as the 
day advanced, and the garrison exchanged the news con- 
tained in all the letters that had arrived from the expedition, 
I could not deceive myself into the belief that the way of our 
regiment had thus far been easy. 

With all my endeavors to divide the day methodically, and 
enforce certain duties upon myself, knowing well that it was 
my only refuge from settled melancholy, I found time a lag- 
gard. It is true, my clothes were in a deplorable state, 
for while our own officers were with us they looked to us to 
fill up their leisure hours. The General, always devoted to 
his books, could read in the midst of our noisy circle ; but I 
was never permitted much opportunity, and managed to keep 
up with the times by my husband's account of the important 
news, and by the agreeable method of listening to the discus- 
sions of the men upon topics of the hour. If, while our cir- 
cle was intact, I tried to sew, a ride, a walk or a game of 
parlor croquet was proposed, to prevent my even mending 
our clothing. Now that we were alone, it was necessary to 
make the needle fly. Eliza was set up with a supply of blue- 
checked gowns and aprons, while my own dresses were re- 
constructed, the riding-habit was fortified with patches, and 
any amount of stout linen thread disappeared in strengthen- 
ing the seams ; for between the hard riding and the gales of 
wind we encountered, the destruction of a habit was rapid. 

Diana, with the elastic heart of a coquette, had not only 
sped the parting, but welcomed the coming guest ; for hardly 



A PRAIRIE FIRE. 319 

had the sound of the trumpet died away, before a new officer 
began to frequent our parlor. It was then the fashion for 
men to wear a tiny neck-bow, called a butterfly tie. They 
were made on a pasteboard foundation, with a bit of elastic 
cord to fasten them to the shirt-stud. I knew of no paste- 
board nearer than Leavenworth ; but in the curly head there 
were devices to meet the exigency. I found Diana with her 
lap full of photographs, cutting up the portraits of the de- 
parted beaux, to make ties for the next. Whether the new 
suitor ever discovered that he was wearing at his neck the 
face of a predecessor, I do not know ; but this I do remem- 
ber, that the jagged, frayed appearance that the girl's dresses 
presented when turned inside out, betrayed where the silk 
was procured to make the neckties. She had clipped out 
bits of material where the skirt was turned in, and when we 
attempted to remodel ourselves and cut down the volumin- 
ous breadths of that time into tightly gored princesse gowns, 
we were put to it to make good the deficiencies, and " piece 
out " the silk that had been sacrificed to her flirtations. 

Succeeding letters from my husband gave an account of 
his first experience with the perfidy of the Indians. The 
council had been held, and it was hoped that effectual steps 
were taken to establish peace. But, as is afterward related, 
the chiefs gave them the slip and deserted the village. Even 
in the midst of hurried preparations to follow the renegades, 
my husband stopped, in order that his departure might not 
make me depressed, to give an account of a joke that they all 
had on one of their number, who dared to eat soup out of an 
Indian kettle still simmering over the deserted fire. The 
General pressed the retreating Indians so closely, the very 
night of their departure, that they were obliged to divide 
into smaller detachments, and even the experienced Plains- 
men could no longer trace a trail. 

Meanwhile, as our officers were experiencing all sorts of 
new phases in life on their first march over the Plains, our 
vicissitudes were increasing at what seemed to be the peace- 
ful Fort Riley. I had seen with dismay that the cavalry were 



320 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

replaced by negro infantry, and found that they were to gar- 
rison the post for the summer. I had never seen negroes as sol- 
diers, and these raw recruits had come from plantations, where 
I had known enough of their life, while in Texas and Louisi- 
ana, to realize what an irresponsible, child's existence it was. 
Entirely dependent on some one's care, and without a sense 
of obligation of any kind, they were exempt from the neces- 
sity of thinking about the future. Their time had been spent 
in following the directions of the overseer in the corn-field or 
cotton brake by day, and beguiling the night with a coon- 
hunt or the banjo. The early days of their soldiering were a 
reign of terror to us women, in our lonely, unprotected 
homes. It was very soon discovered that the officer who 
commanded them was for the first time accustoming himself 
to colored troops, and did not know how to keep in check 
the boisterous, undisciplined creatures. He was a courteous, 
quiet man, of scholarly tastes, and evidently entertained the 
belief that moral suasion would eventually effect any purpose. 
The negroes, doubtless discovering what they could do under 
so mild a commander, grew each day more lawless. They 
used the parade-ground, which our officers had consecrated 
to the most formal of ceremonies, like dress-parades and 
guard-mount, for a playground ; turning hand-springs all 
over the sprouting grass, and vaulting in leap-frog over the 
bent back of a comrade. If it were possible for people in the 
States to realize how sacred the parade-ground of a Western 
post is, how hurriedly a venturesome cow or loose horse is 
marshaled off, how pompously every one performs the mili- 
tary duties permitted on this little square ; how even the 
color-sergeant, who marches at measured gait to take down 
and furl the garrison flag, when the evening gun announces 
that the sun has been, by the royal mandate of military law, 
permitted to set — they would then understand with what per- 
turbation we women witnessed the desecration of what had 
been looked upon as hallowed earth. The sacrilege of these 
monkey acrobats turning somersaults over the ground, their 
elongated heels vibrating in the air, while they stood upon 



A PRAIRIE FIRE. 32I 

their heads in front of our windows, made us very indignant. 
When one patted "juba,"and a group danced, we seemed 
transformed into a disconnected minstrel show. There was 
not a trace of the well-conducted post of a short time before. 

All this frivolity was but the prelude to serious trouble. 
The joy with which the negroes came into possession of a 
gun for the first time in their lives would have been ludicrous 
had it not been extremely dangerous. They are eminently a 
race given over to display. This was exhibited in their at- 
tempts to make themselves marksmen in a single day. One 
morning we were startled by a shot coming from the bar- 
racks. It was followed by a rush of men out of the doors, 
running wildly to and fro, yelling with alarm. We knew 
that some disaster had occurred, and it proved to be the in- 
stant death of a too confiding negro, who had allowed him- 
self to be cast for the part of William Tells son. His acci- 
dental murderer was a man that had held a gun in his hand 
that week for the first time. 

They had no sort of idea how to care for their health. 
The ration of a soldier is so large that a man who can eat it 
all in a day is renowned as a glutton. 1 think but few in- 
stances ever occur where the entire ration is consumed by 
one man. It is not expected, and, fortunately, with all the 
economy of the Government, the supply has never been cut 
down ; but the surplus is sold and a company fund established. 
By this means, the meagre fare is increased by buying vege- 
tables, if it happen to be a land where they can be obtained. 
The negroes, for the first time in possession of all the coffee, 
pork, sugar, and hardtack they wanted, ate inordinately. 
There was no one to compel them to cleanliness. If a sol- 
dier in a white regiment is very untidy the men become in- 
dignant, and as the voluminous regulations provide direc- 
tions only for the scrubbing of the quarters and not of the 
men, they sometimes take the affair into their own hands, 
and, finding from their captain that they will not be inter- 
fered with, the untidy one is taken on a compulsory journey 
to the creek and " ducked " until the soldiers consider him 



322 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

endurable. The negroes at that time had no idea of en- 
countering the chill of cold water on their tropical skins, 
and suffered the consequences very soon. Pestilence broke 
out among them. Smallpox, black measles and other con- 
tagious diseases raged, while the soldier's enemy, scurvy, took 
possession. We were within a stone's-throw of the barracks. 
Of course the illest among them were quarantined in hos- 
pital-tents outside the garrison; but to look over to the in- 
fested barracks and realize what lurked behind the walls, 
was, to say the least, uncomfortable for those of us who were 
near enough to breathe almost the same air. 

Added to this, we felt that, with so much indiscriminate 
firing, a shot might at any time enter our windows. One 
evening a few women were walking outside the garrison. 
Our limits were not so circumscribed, at that time, as they 
were in almost all the places where I was stationed afterward. 
A sentinel always walked a beat in front of a small arsenal 
outside of the post, and, overcome with the grandeur of 
carrying a gun and wearing a uniform, he sought to impress 
his soldierly qualities on anyone approaching by a stentorian 
" Who comes thar ? " It was entirely unnecessary, as it was 
light enough to see the fluttering skirts of women, for the 
winds kept our drapery in constant motion. Almost instantly 
after his challenge, the flash of his gun and the whizz of a 
bullet past us made us aware that our lives were spared only 
because of his inaccurate aim. Of course that ended our even- 
ing walks, and it was a great deprivation, as the monotony 
of a garrison becomes almost unbearable. 

There was one person who profited by the presence of the 
negro troops. Our Eliza was such a belle, that she would 
have elevated them into too exalted a sphere to wait on us, 
had she not been accustomed to constant adulation from the 
officers' body-servants from the time, as she expressed it, 
when she "entered the service." Still, it was a distraction, 
of which she availed herself in our new post, to receive new 
beaux, tire of them, quarrel and discard them for fresh vic- 
tims. They waited on her assiduously, and I suspect they 



A PRAIRIE FIRE. 323 

dined daily in our kitchen, as long as their brief season of 
favor lasted. They even sought to curry favor with Eliza by 
gifts to me — snaring quail, imprisoning them in cages made 
of cracker-boxes, or bring dandelion greens or wild-flowers 
as they appeared in the dells. For all these gifts I was duly 
grateful, but I was very much afraid of a negro soldier, never- 
theless. 

At last our perplexities and frights reached a climax. One 
night we heard the measured tramp of feet over the gravel 
in the road in front of our quarters, and they halted almost 
opposite our windows, where we could hear the voices. No 
loud " Halt, who comes there! " rang out on the air, for the 
sentinel was enjoined to silence. Being frightened, I called 
to Eliza. To Diana and to me she was w T orth a corporal's 
guard, and could not be equaled as a defender, solacer and 
general manager of our dangerous situations — indeed, of all 
our affairs. Eliza ran up-stairs in response to my cry, and we 
watched with terror what went on. It soon was discovered 
to be a mutiny. The men growled and swore, and we could 
see by their threatening movements that they were in a state 
of exasperation. They demanded the commanding officer, 
and as he did not appear, they clenched their fists, and looked 
at the house as if they would tear it down, or at least break 
in the doors. It seemed a desperate situation to us, for the 
quarters were double, and our gallery had no division from 
the neighbors. If doors and windows were to be demolished, 
there would be little hope for ours. I knew of no way by 
which we could ask help, as most of the soldiers were colored, 
and we felt sure that the plan, whatever it was, must include 
them all. 

At last Eliza realized how terrified I was, and gave up the 
absorbing watch she was keeping, for her whole soul was in 
the wrongs, real or fancied, of her race. Too often had she 
comforted me in my fears to forget me now, and an explana- 
tion was given of this alarming outbreak. 

The men had for some time been demanding the entire 
ration, and were especially clamorous for all the sugar that 



324 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

was issued. Very naturally, the captain had withheld the 
supernumerary supplies, in order to make company savings 
for the purpose of buying vegetables. A mutiny over sugar 
may seem a small affair, but it assumes threatening propor- 
tions when a mob of menacing, furious men tramp up and down 
in front of one's house, and there is no safe place of refuge, 
nor any one to whom appeal can be made. Eliza kept up a 
continuous comforting and reassuring, but when I reminded 
her that our door had no locks, or, rather, no keys, for it was 
not the custom to lock army quarters, she said, " La, Miss 
Libbie, they won't tech you; you dun wrote too many letters 
for 'em, and they'se got too many good vittels in your kitchen 
ever to 'sturb you." Strong excitement is held to be the 
means of bringing out the truth, and here were the facts re- 
vealed that they had been bountifully led at our expense. I 
had forgotten how much ink I had used in trying to put down 
their very words in love-letters, or family epistles to the 
Southern plantation. The infuriated men had to quiet down, 
for no response came from the commanding officer. They 
found out, I suppose from the investigations of one acting as 
spy, and going to the rear of the quarters, that he had dis- 
appeared. To our intense relief, they straggled off until their 
growling and muttering were lost in the barracks, where they 
fortunately went to bed. No steps were taken to punish 
them, and at any imaginary wrong, they might feel, from the 
success of this first attempt at insurrection, that it was safe 
to repeat the experiment. We women had little expectation 
but that the summer would be one of carousal and open re- 
bellion against military rule. The commanding officer, 
though very retiring, was so courteous and kindly to all the 
women left in the garrison, that it was difficult to be angry 
with him for his failure to control the troops. Indeed, his 
was a hard position to fill, with a lot of undisciplined, igno- 
rant, ungoverned creatures, who had never been curbed, ex- 
cept by the punishment of plantation life. 

Meanwhile my letters, on which I wrote every day, even if 
there was no opportunity to send them, made mention of our 



A PRAIRIE FIRE. 325 

frights and uncertainties. Each mail carried out letters from 
the women to the expedition, narrating their fears. We had 
not the slightest idea that there was a remedy. I looked 
upon the summer as the price I was to pay for the privilege 
of being so far on the frontier, so much nearer the expedi- 
tion than the families of officers who had gone East. With 
all my tremors and misgivings, I had no idea of retreating 
to safe surroundings, as I should then lose my hope ofevent- 
ually going out to the regiment. It took a long time for our 
letters to reach the expedition, and a correspondingly long 
time for replies; but the descriptions of the night of mutiny 
brought the officers together in council, and the best disci- 
plinarian of our regiment was immediately despatched to our 
relief. I knew but little of General Gibbs at that time; my 
husband had served with him during the war, and valued his 
soldierly ability and sincere friendship. He had been terri- 
bly wounded in the Indian wars before the Civil War, and 
was really unfit for hard service, but too soldierly to be will- 
ing to remain at the rear. In a week after his arrival at our 
post, there was a marked difference in the state of affairs. 
Out of the seemingly hopeless material, General Gibbs made 
soldiers who were used as guards over Government property 
through the worst of the Indian country, and whose courage 
was put to the test by frequent attacks, where they had to 
defend themselves as well as the supplies. The opinion of 
soldier and citizen alike underwent a change, regarding ne- 
groes as soldiers, on certain duty to which they were fitted. 
A ranchman, after praising their fighting, before the season 
was ended said, ' • And plague on my cats if they don't like it. " 
We soon found that we had reached a country where the 
weather could show more remarkable and sudden phases in a 
given time than any portion of the United States. The cul- 
tivation of the ground, planting of trees, and such causes, 
have materially modified some of the extraordinary exhibi- 
tions that we witnessed when Kansas was supposed to be the 
great American desert. With all the surprises that the ele- 
ments furnished, there was one that we would gladly have 



326 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

been spared. One quiet day I heard a great rumbling in the 
direction of the plateau where we had ridden so much, as if 
many prairie-schooners, heavily laden, were being spirited 
away by the stampede of mules. Next, our house began to 
rock, the bell to ring, and the pictures to vibrate on the wall. 
The mystery was solved when we ran to the gallery, and 
found the garrison rushing out of barracks and quarters; 
Women and children ran to the parade-ground, all hatless, 
some half-dressed. Everybody stared at every one else, 
turned pale, and gasped with fright. It was an earthquake, 
sufficiently serious to shake our stone quarters and overturn 
the lighter articles, while farther down the gully the great 
stove at the sutler's store was tumbled over and the side of 
the building broken in by the shock. There was a deep fis- 
sure in the side of the bank, and the waters of the Big Blue 
were so agitated that the bed of the river twelve feet deep 
was plainly visible. 

The usual session of the " Did-you-evers " took place, and 
resolutions were drawn up — not committed to paper, how- 
ever — giving the opinion of women on Kansas as a place of 
residence. We had gone through prairie-fire, pestilence, 
mutiny, a river freshet, and finally, an earthquake: enough 
exciting events to have been scattered through a lifetime 
were crowded into a few weeks. Yet in these conclaves, 
when we sought sympathy and courage from one another, 
there was never a suggestion of returning to a well-regulated 
climate. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SACRIFICES AND SELF-DENIAL OF PIONEER DUTY — CAPTAIN 
ROBBINS AND COLONEL COOK ATTACKED, AND FIGHT FOR 
THREE HOURS. 

It is a source of regret, as these pages grow daily under 
my hand, that I have not the power to place before the coun- 
try the sacrifices and noble courage endured by the officers 
and soldiers of our army in their pioneer work. I can only 
portray, in the simplest manner, what I saw them endure 
unmurmuringly, as I was permitted to follow in the marches 
and campaigns of our regiment. I find that it is impossible 
to make the life clear to citizens, even when they ask me to 
describe personally something of frontier days, unless they 
may have been over the Plains in their journeys to and from 
the Pacific coast. Even then, they look from the windows 
of the Pullman car on to the desert, white with alkali, over 
which the heat rises in waves, and upon earth that struggles 
to give even life to the hardy cactus or sage-brush. Then I 
find their attention is called to our army, and I sometimes 
hear a sympathetic tone in their voices as they say, "Ah! 
Mrs. Custer, when I rode over that God-forgotten land, I be- 
gan to see what none of us at the East ever realize — the ter- 
rible life that our army leads on the Plains." And only 
lately, while I was in the West, a citizen described to me 
seeing a company of cavalry, that had made a terrific march, 
come in to the railroad at some point in Arizona. He told 
me of their blistered faces, their bloodshot, inflamed eyes — 
the result of the constant cloud of alkali dust through which 
they marched — the exhaustion in every limb, so noticeable 
in men of splendid vigor, with their broad chests, deep 

3?7 



328 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

throats, and muscular build, because it told what a fearful 
strain it must have been to have reduced such stalwart 
athletes to weakness. What effect it would have to introduce 
a body of such indomitable men in the midst of an Eastern 
city, tired, travel-stained, but invincible ! 

After all, if we who try to be their champions should suc- 
ceed in making this transfer by some act of necromancy, the 
men would be silent about their sufferings. Among the few 
officers who have written of Plains life, there is scarcely a 
mention of hardships endured. As I read over my husband's 
magazine articles for the first time in many years, I find 
scarcely a reference to the scorching sun, the stinging cold, 
the bleak winds. His narrative reads like the story of men 
who marched always in sunshine, coming across clear streams 
of running water and shady woods in which to encamp. I 
have been there; through and through the breezy, buoyant 
tale I see the background — a treeless, arid plain, brackish, 
muddy water, sandy, sterile soil. The faces of our gallant 
men come up to me in retrospection, blistered and swollen, 
the eyes streaming with moisture from the inflaming dust, 
the parched lips cracked with fever of unquenched thirst, the 
hands, even, puffed and fiery with the sun-rays, day after 
day. 

It seems heartless to smile in the midst of this vision, 
recalled to me of what I myself have seen, but I hear some 
civilian say, as they have often asked me equally inconsistent 
questions, " Well, why didn't they wear gloves?" Where all 
the possessions of a man are carried on the saddle, and the 
food and forage on pack-mules, it would be impossible to 
take along gloves to last from early spring till the stinging 
cold of late autumn. Thirst is an unconquerable foe. It is one 
of those enemies that may be vanquished on one field and come 
up, supported by legions of fresh desires, the very next day. 
I know nothing but the ever-present selfishness of our na- 
tures that requires such persistent fighting. Just fancy, for 
a moment, the joy of reaching a river or a stream on the 
Plains ! How easy the march seemed beside its banks! At 



SACRIFICES OF PIONEER DUTY. 329 

any moment one could descend, fill the canteen, and rejoin 
the column. It is true the quality of the water was not of 
the best, but there comes a time, out there, when quantity 
triumphs. It seems so good to have enough of anything, for 
the stinted supplies of all sorts make life seem always meagre 
in a country with no natural resources. But woe be to the 
man who puts his faith in a Western stream ! They used to 
take themselves suddenly out of sight, down somewhere into 
the bowels of the earth, and leave the bed dry as dust, wind- 
ing its tortuous way for miles, aggravating us by the constant 
reminder of where water ought to be, but where it unfortu- 
nately was not. This sudden disappearance of water is sup- 
posed to be due to the depression of the rocky beds of the 
streams. A deep sand absorbs the moisture from the surface, 
and draws down into its depths all the stream. When the 
bed again rises nearer the surface, the stream comes to sight 
once more. Whoever, after the water disappeared, found 
that he must drink or die, was obliged to stop and dig away 
at the dry bed of the river until he found moisture. It was 
a desperate man that attempted it; one whose throat had 
become voiceless, whose mouth and lips ached with the 
swelling veins of overheated blood; for, if one delayed be- 
hind the column for ever so short a time, he was reminded 
of his insecurity by a flash from a pile of stones or a bunch 
of sage-bush on the summit of a low divide. The wily foe 
that lurks in the rear of a marching column has no equal in 
vigilance. 

And then, what a generous being a soldier is ! How often 
I have seen them pass the precious nectar— it seemed so then, 
in spite of its being warm and alkaline; and I speak from ex- 
perience, for they have given me a chance also — flavored 
with poor whiskey sometimes, as that old tin receptacle which 
Government furnishes holds coffee, whiskey or water, which- 
ever is attainable. I fear that, had I scratched and dug slowly 
into the soil with the point of a sabre, and scooped up a mini- 
mum of water, my eye on the bluff near, watching and in 
fear of an Indian, I should have remembered my own parched 



330 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

throat and let the whole American army go thirsty. But I 
am thankful to say the soldier is made of different stuff. It 
is enough to weld strongest bonds of friendship, like those 
in our army, when it is share and share alike; and I am re- 
minded of a stanza of soldier poetry: 

" There are bonds of all sorts in this world of ours, 
Fetters of friendship and ties of flowers, 

And true-lover's knots, I ween; 
The boy and the girl are bound by a kiss, 
But there's never a bond of old friends like this — 
We have drunk from the same canteen." 

I have, among our Plains photographs, a picture of one of 
the Western rivers, with no sort of tree or green thing grow- 
ing on its banks. It is the dreariest picture I ever saw, and 
as it appears among the old photographs of merry groups 
taken in camp or on porches covered with our garrison fam- 
ily, it gives me a shudder even now. Among the photo- 
graphs of the bright side of our life, this is the skeleton at 
the feast which comes up so persistently. 

Since all rivers and streams in the States are fringed with 
trees, it is difficult to describe how strange some of our West- 
ern water-ways appeared without so much as a border of 
shrubs or reeds. In looking over the country, as we ascended 
to a divide higher than the rest, the stream lay before us, 
winding on in the curving lines of our own Eastern rivers, 
but for miles and miles not a vestige of green bordered the 
banks. It seemed to me for all the world like an eye without 
an eyelash. It was strange, unnatural, weird. The white 
alkali was the only border, and that spread on into the 
scorched brown grass, too short to protect the traveler from the 
glare that was heightened by the sun in a cloudless sky. A 
tree was often a landmark, and was mentioned on the insuf- 
ficient maps of the country, such as " Thousand-mile Tree," 
a name telling its own story; or, " Lone Tree," known as the 
only one within eighty miles, as was the one in Dakota, 
where so many Indians buried their dead. 



SACRIFICES OF PIONEER DUTY. 33I 

What made those thirsty marches a thousand times worse 
was the alluring, aggravating mirage. This constantly de- 
ceived even old campaigners, and produced the most harrow- 
ing sort of illusions. Such a will-o'-the-wisp, too ! for, as we 
believed ourselves approaching the blessed water, imagined 
the air was fresher, looked eagerly and expectantly for the 
brown, shriveled grass to grow green, off floated the deluding 
water farther and farther away. 

As I try to write something of the sacrifices of the soldier, 
who will not speak of himself, and for whom so few have 
spoken, there comes to me another class of heroes, for whom 
my husband had such genuine admiration, and in whose be- 
half he gave up his life — our Western pioneer. A desperate 
sort of impatience overcomes me when I realize how inca- 
pable I am of paying them proper tribute. And yet how fast 
they are passing away, with no historians! and hordes of 
settlers are sweeping into the western States and Territories, 
quite unmindful of the soldiers and frontiersmen, who fought, 
step by step, to make room for the coming of the over- 
crowded population of the East. My otherwise charming 
journeys West now are sometimes marred by the desire I feel 
for calling the attention of the travelers, who are borne by 
steam swiftly over the Plains, to the places where so short a 
time since men toilsomely traveled in pursuit of homes. I 
want to ask those who journey for pleasure or for a new home, 
if they realize what men those were who took their lives in 
their hands and prepared the way.* Their privations are for- 



*My father went to Michigan early in 1800, and his long jour- 
ney was made by stage, canal-boat and schooner. He was not 
only a great while in making the trip, but subject to privations, 
illness and fatigue, even when using the only means of travel in 
those early days. The man who went over the old California trail 
fared far worse. His life was in peril from Indians all the distance, 
besides his having to endure innumerable hardships. Those who 
pioneer in a Pullman car little know what the unbeaten track held 
for the first comers. 



332 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

gotten, or carelessly ignored, by those who now go in and 
possess the land. The graphic pens of Bret Harte and others, 
who have written of the frontier, arrest the attention of the 
Eastern man, and save from oblivion some of the noble char- 
acters of those early days. Still, these poets naturally seized 
for portraiture the picturesque, romantic characters who were 
miners or scouts — the isolated instances of desperate men 
who had gone West from love of adventure, or because of 
some tragic history in the States, that drove them to seek 
forgetfulness in a wild, unfettered existence beyond the pale 
of civilization. 

Who chronicles the patient, plodding, silent pioneer, who, 
having been crowded out of his home by too many laborers 
in a limited field, or, because he could no longer wring sub- 
sistence from a soil too long tilled by sire and grandsire; or 
possibly a returned volunteer from our war, who, finding all 
places he once filled closed up, was compelled to take the 
grant of land that the Government gives its soldiers, and be- 
gin life all over again, for the sake of wife and children! 
There is little in these lives to arrest the poetical fancy of 
those writers who put into rhyme (which is the most lasting 
of all history) the lives otherwise lost to the world. 

How often General Custer rode up to these weary, plodding 
yeomen, as they turned aside their wagons to allow the col- 
umn of cavalry to pass! He was interested in every detail of 
their lives, admired their indomitable pluck, and helped them, 
if he could, in their difficult journeys. Sometimes, after a 
summer of hardships and every sort of discouragement, we 
met the same people returning East, and the General could 
not help being amused at the grim kind of humor that led 
these men to write the history of their season in one word on 
the battered cover of the wagon — " Busted." 

We were in Kansas during all the grasshopper scourge, 
when our Government had to issue rations to the starving 
farmers deprived of every source of sustenance. What a 
marvel that men had the courage to hold out at all, in those 
exasperating times, when the crops were no sooner up than 



SACRIFICES OF PIONEER DUTY. 333 

every vestige of green would be stripped from the fields! 
Then, too, the struggle for water was great. The artesian 
wells that now cover the Western States were too expensive 
to undertake with the early settlers. The windmills that now 
whirl their gay wheels at every zephyr of the Plains, and 
water vast numbers of cattle on the farms, were then un- 
thought of. ... A would-be settler in Colorado, in those 
times of deprivation and struggle, wrote his history on a 
board and set it up on the trail, as a warning to others com- 
ing after him: "Toughed it out here two years. Result: 
Stock on hand, five towheads and seven yaller dogs. Two 
hundred and fifty feet down to water. Fifty miles to wood 
and grass. Hell all around. God bless our home." 

It would be too painful to attempt to enumerate the rav- 
ages made by the Indians on the pioneer; and God alone 
knows how they faced life at all, working their claims with a 
musket beside them in the field, and the sickening dread of 
returning to a desolated cabin ever present in their heavy 
hearts. There are those I occasionally meet, who went 
through innumerable hardships, and overcame almost insur- 
mountable obstacles, and who attained to distinction in that 
land of the setting sun; but I find they only remember the 
jovial side of their early days. Not long since I had the priv- 
ilege of talking with the Governor of one of our Territories. 
He was having an interview with some Mexican Senators by 
means of an interpreter, and after his business was finished, 
he turned to our party to talk with enthusiasm of his Terri- 
tory. No youth could be more sanguine than he over the 
prospects, the climate, the natural advantages of the new 
country in which he had just cast his lines. All his reminis- 
cences of his early days in other Territories were most inter- 
esting to me. General Custer was such an enthusiast over 
our glorious West, that I early learned to look upon much 
that I would not otherwise have regarded with interest, with 
his buoyant feeling. ... I must qualify this statement, and 
explain that I could not always see such glowing colors as did 
he, while we suffered from climate, and were sighing for such 



334 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

blessings as trees and water; but we were both heart and soul 
with every immigrant we came across, and I think many a 
half-discouraged pioneer went on his way, after encountering 
my husband on the westward trail, a braver and more hope- 
ful man. 

How well I remember the long wait we made on one of the 
staircases of the Capitol at Washington, above which hung 
then the great picture by Leutze, " Westward the Course of 
Empire Takes its Way." We little thought then, hardly 
more than girl and boy as we were, that our lives would drift 
over the country which the admirable picture represents. 
The General hung round it with delight, and noted many 
points that he wanted me to enjoy with him. The picture 
made a great impression on us. How much deeper the im- 
pression, though, had we known that we were to live out the 
very scenes depicted! 

Coming back to the Governor: I cannot take time to write 
his well-told story. The portion of the interesting hour that 
made the greatest impression on me was his saying that the 
happiest days of his life were those when, for fifteen hundred 
miles, he walked beside the wagon containing his wife and 
babies, and drove the team from their old home in Wisconsin 
to a then unsettled portion of Ohio. The honors that had 
come to him as senator, governor, statesman, faded beside 
the joys of his first venture from home into the wilderness. 
I saw him, in imagination, as I have often seen the pioneer, 
looking back to the opening made in the front of the wagon 
by the drawing over of the canvas cover to the puckered circle, 
in which were framed the woman and babies for whom he 
could do and dare. I fall to wondering if there is any affec- 
tion like that which is enhanced or born of these sacrifices 
in each other's behalf. I wonder if there can be anything 
that would so spur a man to do heroic deeds as the feeling 
that he walked in front of three dependent beings, and 
braved Indians, starvation, floods, prairie-fire, and all those 
perils that beset a Western trail; and to see the bright, fond 
eyes of a mother, and the rosy cheeks of the little ones, look- 



SACRIFICES OF PIONEER DUTY. 335 

ing uncomplainingly out upon the desert before them — why, 
what could nerve a man's arm like that? Love grows with 
every sacrifice, and I believe that many a youthful passion, 
that might have become colorless with time, has been deep- 
ened into lasting affection on those lonely tramps over the 
prairies. 

It has also been my good fortune lately to recall our West- 
ern life with an ex-governor of another Territory, a friend of 
my husband's in those Kansas days. What can I say in ad- 
miration of the pluck of those Western men ? Even in the 
midst of his luxuriant New York life, he loves better to dwell 
on the early days of his checkered career, when at seven 
years of age he was taken by his parents to the land of the 
then great unknown. He had made a fortune in California, 
for he was a Forty-niner, and returned East to enjoy it. But 
as he lost his all soon afterward, there was nothing left for him 
to do but to start out again. His wife could have remained 
in comfort and security with her friends, but she preferred to 
share the danger and discomforts of her husband's life. 
Their first trip over the old trail to Denver (our stamping- 
ground afterward) was a journey from Missouri, the outfitting 
place at the termination of the last railway going West, tak- 
ing sixty-four days to accomplish. The wife, brave as she was, 
fell ill, and lay on the hard wagon-bed the whole distance. 
The invincible father took entire care of her and of his chil- 
dren, cooking for the party of eleven on the whole route, 
and did guard duty a portion of every night. The Indians 
were hovering in front and in rear. Two of the party were 
too old to walk and carry a musket, so that on the five men 
devolved the guarding of their little train. Nine times after- 
ward he and his wife crossed that long stretch of country be- 
fore the railroad was completed, always in peril, and never 
knowing from hour to hour when a band of hostiles would 
sweep down upon them. He taught his children the use of 
fire-arms as soon as they were large enough to hold a pistol. 
His daughter learned, as well as his sons, to be an accurate 
marksman, and shot from the pony's back when he scamper- 



336 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

ed at full speed over the prairies. For years and years, all 
his family were obliged to be constantly vigilant. They liv- 
ed out a long portion of their lives on the alert for a foe that 
they knew well how to dread. 

But the humorous comes in, even in the midst of such 
tragic days! How I enjoyed and appreciated the feelings of 
the Governor's wife, whom I had known as a girl, when she 
rebelled at his exercising his heretofore valuable accomplish- 
ment as cook, after he became Governor. How like a wo- 
man, and how dear such whimsicalities are, sandwiched in 
among the many admirable qualities with which such strong 
characters as hers are endowed! It seems that on some 
journey over the Plains they entertained a party of guests the 
entire distance. The cook was a failure, and as the route 
of travel out there is not lined with intelligence-offices, the 
only thing left to do for the new-made Governor, rather than 
see his wife so taxed, was to doff his coat and recall the culi- 
nary gifts acquired in pioneer life. The madame thought 
her husband, now a Governor, might keep in secrecy his gifts 
at getting up a dinner. But he persisted, saying that it was 
still a question whether he would make a good Governor, 
and as he was pretty certain he was a good cook, he thought 
it as well to impress that one gift, of which he was sure, upon 
his constituents. 

The next letter from the expedition brought me such good 
news, that I counted all the frights of the past few weeks as 
nothing, compared with the opportunity that being in Fort 
Riley gave me of joining my husband. He wrote that the 
cavalry had been detached from the main body of the com- 
mand, and ordered to scout the stage-route from Fort Hays 
to Fort McPherson, then the most invested with savages. A 
camp was to be established temporarily, and scouting parties 
sent out from Fort Hays. To my joy, my husband said in 
his letter that I might embrace any safe opportunity to join 
him there. General Sherman proved to be the direct answer 
to my prayers, for he arrived soon after I had begun to look 
confidently for a chance to leave for Fort Hays, 



SACRIFICES OF PIONEER DUTY. 337 

With the grave question of the summer campaign in his 
mind, it probably did not occur to him that he was acting 
as the envoy extraordinary of Divine Providence to a very anx- 
ious, lonely woman. While he talked with me occasionally of 
the country, about which he was an enthusiast — and, oh, how 
his predictions of its prosperity have come true already! — I 
made out to reply coherently, but I kept up a very vehement, 
enthusiastic set of inner thoughts and grateful ejaculations, 
blessing him for every breath he drew, blessing and thanking 
Providence that he had given the commander-in-chief of our 
forces a heart so fresh and warm he could feel for others, and 
a soul so loyal and affectionate for his own wife and family 
that he knew what it was to endure suspense and separation. 
He had with him some delightful girls, whom we enjoyed 
very much. I cannot remember whether, in my anxiety to 
go to my husband, my conversation led up to the subject — 
doubtless it did, for I was then at that youthful stage of ex- 
istence when the mouth speaketh out of the fullness of the 
heart — but I do remember that the heart in me nearly leaped 
out of my body when he invited me to go in his car to Fort 
Harker, for the railroad had been completed to that next 
post. 

Diana crowded what of her apparel she could into her 
trunk, and I had a valise, but the largest part of our luggage 
was a roll of bedding, which I remember blushing over as it 
was handed into the special coach, for there was no baggage- 
car. It looked very strange to see such an ungainly bundle 
as part of the belongings of two young women, and though 
I was perfectly willing to sleep on the ground in camp, as I 
had done in Virginia and Texas, I did not wish to court hard- 
ships when I knew a way to avoid them. Though we went 
over a most interesting country, General Sherman did not 
seem to care much for the outside world. He sat in the 
midst of us, and entered into all our fun; told stories to 
match ours, joined in our songs, and was the Grand Mogul 
of our circle. One of the young girls was so captivating, 
even in her disloyalty, that it amused us all immensely. 



338 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

When we sang war-songs, she looked silently out of the win- 
dow. If we talked of the danger we might encounter with 
Indians, General Sherman said, slyly, he would make her de- 
parture from earth as easy as possible, for he would honor 
her with a military funeral. She knew that she must, in such 
a case, be wrapped in the Stars and Stripes, and he did not 
neglect to tell her that honor awaited her if she died, but she 
vehemently refused the honor. All this, which would have 
been trying from a grown person, was nothing but amuse- 
ment to us from a chit of a girl, who doubtless took her color- 
ing, as the chameleon-like creatures of that age do, from her 
latest Confederate sweetheart. 

In retrospection, I like to think of the tact and tolerance 
of General Sherman, in those days of furious feeling on both 
sides, and the quiet manner in which he heard the Southern 
people decry the Yankees. He knew of their impoverished 
and desolated homes, and realized, living among them as he 
did in St. Louis, what sacrifices they had made; more than 
all, his sympathetic soul saw into the darkened lives of moth- 
ers, wives and sisters who had given, with their idea of pa- 
triotism, their loved ones to their country. The truth is, he 
was back again among those people of whom he had been so 
fond, and no turbulent expressions of hatred and revenge 
could unsettle the underlying affection. Besides, he has al- 
ways been a far-seeing man. Who keeps in front in our 
country's progress as does this war hero ? Is he not a states- 
man as well as a soldier? And never have the interests of 
our land been narrowed down to any prescribed post where 
he may have been stationed, or his life been belittled by any 
temporary isolation or division from the rest of mankind. 
Every public scheme for our advancement as a nation meets 
his enthusiastic welcome. This spirit enabled him to see, at 
the close of the war, that, after the violence of wrath should 
have subsided, the South would find themselves more pros- 
perous, and capable, in the new order of affairs, of immense 
strides in progress of all kinds. 

I remember a Southern woman, who came to stay with 



SACRIFICES OF PIONEER DUTY. 339 

relatives in our garrison, telling me of her first encounter 
with General Sherman after the war. He had been a valued 
friend for many years; but it was too much when, on his re- 
turn to St. Louis, he came, as a matter of course, to see his 
old friends. Smarting with the wrongs of her beloved South, 
she would not even send a message by the maid; she ran to 
the head of the stairs, and in an excited tone, asked if he 
for one moment expected she would speak, so much as 
speak, to a Yankee ? The General went on his peaceful way, 
as unharmed by this peppery assault as a foe who is out of 
reach of our short-range Government carbines, and I can re- 
call with what cordiality she came to greet him later in the 
year or two that followed. No one could maintain wrath 
long against such imperturbable good-nature as General 
Sherman exhibited. He remembered a maxim that we all 
are apt to forget, " Put yourself in his place." 

Along the line of the railroad were the deserted towns, 
and we even saw a whole village moving on flat cars. The 
portable houses of one story and the canvas rolls of tents, 
which would soon be set up to form a street of saloons, were 
piled up as high as was safe, and made the strangest sort of 
freight train. The spots from which they had been removed 
were absolutely the dreariest of sights. A few poles, broken 
kegs, short chimneys made in rude masonry of small round 
stones, heaps of tin cans everywhere, broken bottles strew- 
ing the ground, while great square holes yawned empty 
where, a short time before, a canvas roof covered a room 
stored with clumsy shelves laden with liquor. Here and there 
a smoke-stained barrel protruded from the ground. They 
were the chimneys of some former dug-outs. I cannot de- 
scribe how startled I was when I first came near one of these 
improvised chimneys, and saw smoke pouring out, without 
any other evidence that I was walking over the home of a 
frontier citizen. The roof of a flat dug-out is level with the 
earth, and as no grass consents to grow in these temporary 
villages, there is nothing to distinguish the upturned soil 
that has been used as a covering for the beams of the roof of 



34-0 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

a dwelling from any of the rest of the immediate vicinity. A 
portion of this moving village had already reached the end 
in the railroad, and named itself Ellsworth, with streets call- 
ed by various high-sounding appellations, but marked only 
by stakes in the ground. 

At Fort Harker we found a forlorn little post — a few log 
houses bare of every comfort, and no trees to cast a shade 
on the low roofs. The best of the quarters, belonging to the 
bachelor commanding officer, were offered to General Sher- 
man and his party. We five women had one of the only two 
rooms. It seems like an abuse of hospitality, even after 
all these years, to say that the floor of uneven boards was 
almost ready for agricultural purposes, as the wind had sifted 
the prairie sand in between the roughly laid logs, and even 
the most careful housewife would have found herself outwit- 
ted if she had tried to keep a tidy floor. I only remember it 
because I was so amused to see the dainty women stepping 
around the little space left in the room between the cots, to 
find a place to kneel and say their prayers. I had given up, 
and gone to bed, as often before I had been compelled to tell 
my thanks to the Heavenly Father on my pillow, for already 
in the marches I had encountered serious obstacles to kneel- 
ing. The perplexed but devout women finally gave up at- 
tempting a devotional attitude, turned their faces to the 
rough wall, and held their rosaries in their fingers, while 
they sent up orisons for protection and guidance. They 
were reverential in their petitions; but I could not help im- 
agining how strange it must seem to these luxuriously raised 
girls, to find themselves in a country where not even a little 
prayer could be said as one would wish. It must have been 
for exigencies of our life that Montgomery wrote the com- 
forting definition that *' Prayer is the soul's sincere desire," 
"The upward lifting of an eye," etc., and so set the heart 
at rest about how and where the supplication of the soul 
could be offered. 

At Fort Harker we bade good-by to our delightful party, 
the frolic and light-heartedness departed, and the serious 



SACRIFICES OF PIONEER DUTY. 



34' 



side of existence appeared. I had but little realization that 
every foot of our coming march of eighty miles was danger- 
ous. We had an ambulance lent us, and accompanied a party 
that had an escort. There were stage-stations every ten or 
fifteen miles, consisting of rude log or stone huts, huddled 
together for safety in case of attack. The stables for the re- 
lays of horses were furnished with strong. doors of rough- 
hewn timber, and the windows closed with shutters of similar 
pattern. The stablemen and relays of drivers lived in no bet- 





i^ 5 ^ 



A MATCH BUFFALO HUNT. 



ter quarters than the horses. They were, of course, intrepid 
men, and there was no stint in arming them with good rifles 
and abundance of ammunition. They were prepared for at- 
tack, and could have defended themselves behind the strong 
doors — indeed, sustained a siege, for the supplies were kept 
inside their quarters — had not the Indians used prepared ar- 
rows that could be shot into the hay and thus set the stables 
on fire. These Plainsmen all had " dug-outs " as places of 
retreat in case of fire. They were very near the stables, and 
connected by an underground passage. They were about 
four feet deep. The roof was of timbers strong enough to 



342 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

hold four or five feet of earth, and in these retreats a dozen 
men could defend themselves, by firing from loopholes that 
were left under the roof-beams. Some of the stage-stations 
had no regular buildings. We came upon them without being 
prepared by any signs of human life, for the dug-outs were 
excavated from the sloping banks of the creeks. A few holes 
in the side-hill, a$ openings for man and beast, some short 
chimneys on the level ground, were all the evidence of the 
dreary, Columbarium homes. Here these men lived, facing 
death every hour rather than earn a living in the monotonous 
pursuit of some trade or commonplace business in the States. 
And at that time there were always desperadoes who would 
pursue any calling that kept them beyond the reach of the 
law. 

This dreary eighty miles over a monotonous country, varied 
only by the undulations that rolled away to Big Creek, was 
over at last, and Fort Hays was finally visible — another small 
post of log huts like Fort Harker, treeless and desolate, but 
the stream beyond was lined with white canvas, which meant 
the tents of the Seventh Cavalry. 

Again it seemed to me the end of all the troubles that 
would ever enter into my life had come, when I was lifted 
out of the ambulance into my husband's tent. What a bless- 
ing it is that there is a halcyon time in sanguine youth, when 
each difficulty vanquished seems absolutely the last that will 
ever come, and when one trouble ends, the stone is rolled 
against its sepulchre with the conviction that nothing will 
ever open wide the door again. We had much to talk about 
in camp. The first campaign of a regiment is always impor- 
tant to them, and in this case, also, the council, the Indian 
village, and its final destruction, were really significant events. 
A match hunt they had carried out was a subject of interest, 
and each side took one ear in turn, to explain why they won, 
or the reasons they lost. Mr. Theodore Davis, the artist 
whom the Harpers sent out for the summer, was drawing 
sketches in our tent, while we advised or commented. It 
seemed well, from the discussions that followed, that rules 



SACRIFICES OF PIONEER DUTY. 



343 










'JSfifAa^eJ 



GATHERING AND COUNTING 
THE TONGUES. 

for the hunt had been 
drawn up in advance. 
It was quite a ranking 
affair, when two full ma- 
jors conducted the sides. 
As only one day was 
given to each side, the 
one remaining in camp 
watched vigilantly that 
the party going out held 
to the rule, and refrained 




ICo^/fs 






^r 



while the same jealous 
eyes noticed that sunset' 
saw all of them in camp 
again. One of the rules 
was, that no shots should 



be counted that were fired when the man was dismounted. 
This alone was a hard task, as at that time the splendid racing 



344 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

of the horse at breakneck speed, with his bridle free on his 
neck, and both hands busy with the gun, was not an accom- 
plished feat. The horses were all novices at buffalo-hunt- 
ing, also, and the game was thin at that season — so thin that 
a bison got over a great deal of territory in a short time. 
I remember the General's telling me what an art it was, even 
after the game was shot, to learn to cut out the tongue. It 
was wonderful that there was such success with so much to 
encounter. The winning party kept their twelve tongues 
very securely hidden until the second day, when the losers 
produced the eleven they had supposed would not be out- 
done. My husband was greatly amused at one of our offi- 
cers, who hovered about the camp-fires of the opposite party 
and craftily put questions to ascertain what was the result of 
the first day. 

All this was told us with great glee. Diana's interests were 
centred in the success of that party with whom her best be- 
loved, for the time, hunted. The officers regretted our ab- 
sence at their great " feed," as they termed it, and it must, 
indeed, have been a great treat to have for once, in that 
starving summer, something palatable. Two wall-tents were 
put together so that the table, made of rough boards, stretch- 
ing through both, was large enough for all. Victors and 
vanquished toasted each other in champagne, and though 
the scene was the plainest order of banquet, lighted by tallow 
candles set in rude brackets sawed out of cracker-box boards 
and fastened to the tent-poles, and the only draping a few 
cavalry guidons, the evening brightened up many a dreary 
day that followed. Gallant Captain Louis McLane Hamil- 
ton, who afterward fell in the battle of the Washita, was the 
hero of the hour, and bore his honors with his usual mod- 
esty. Four out of twelve buffaloes was a record that might 
have set a less boastful tongue wagging over the confidences 
of the evening camp-fire. I do not think he would have per- 
mitted Mr. Davis to put his picture in the illustration if he 
could have helped it. He was gifted with his pencil also; he 
drew caricatures admirably, and after a harmless laugh had 



SACRIFICES OF PIONEER DUTY. 



345 



gone the rounds, he managed, with the utmost adroitness, to 
get possession of the picture and destroy it, thus taking away 
the sting of ridicule, which constant sight of the caricature 




■■ :: -^Z:" 



SUPPER GIVEN BY THE VANQUISHED TO THE VICTORS OF THE 
MATCH BUFFALO HUNT. 



might produce. How I came into possession of one little 
drawing is still a mystery, but it is very clever. Among our 
officers was one who had crossed the Plains as a citizen a 
year or two previous, and his habit of revealing mines of 



346 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

frontier lore obtained on this one trip was somewhat tire- 
some to our still inexperienced officers. At last, after all had 
tried chasing antelope, and been more and more impressed 
in their failures with the fleetness of that winged animal, 
Captain Hamilton made a sketch representing the boaster as 
shooting antelope with the shot-gun. The speck on the hor- 
izon was all that was seen of the game, but the booted and 
spurred man kneeling on the prairie was admirable. It 
silenced one of the stories, certainly, and we often wished 
the pencil could protect us further from subsequent state- 
ments airily made on the strength of the one stage-journey. 
I had arrived in the rainy season, and such an emptying of 
the heavens was a further development of what Kansas could 
do. But nothing damped my ardor; no amount of soakings 
could make me think that camping-ground was not an Elys- 
ian field. The General had made our tent as comfortable 
as possible with his few belongings, and the officers had sent 
in to him, for me, any comfort that they might have chanced 
to bring along on the march. I was, it seemed, to be espec- 
ially honored with a display of what the elements could do 
at night when it was too dark to grope about and protect 
our tent. The wind blew a tornado, and the flashes of light- 
ning illumined the tent and revealed the pole swaying omi- 
nously back and forth. A fly is an outer strip of canvas 
which is stretched over the tent to prevent the rain from 
penetrating, as well as to protect us in the daytime from the 
sun. This flapped and rattled and swung loose at one end, 
beating on the canvas roof like a trip-hammer, for it was 
loaded with moisture; and the wet ropes attached to it, and 
used to guy it down, were now loose, and lashed our rag 
house in an angry, vindictive manner. My husband, accus- 
tomed to the pyrotechnic display of the elements, slept 
soundly through the early part of the storm. But lightning 
" murders sleep " with me, and, consequently, he was awak- 
ened by a conjugal joggle, and on asking, "What is it?" 
was informed, " It lightens ! " Often as this statement was 
made to him in his sudden awakenings, I do not remember 



SACRIFICES OF PIONEER DUTY. 347 

his ever meeting it with any but a teasing, laughing reply, 
like: " Ah ! indeed; I am pleased to be informed of so im- 
portant a fact. This news is quite unexpected," and so on, 
or "When, may I inquire, did you learn this?" On this 
occasion, however, there was no attempt to quiet me or de- 
lay precautions. Feeling sure that we were in for it for the 
night, he unfastened the straps that secured the tent in front, 
and crept out to hammer down the tent-pins and tether the 
ropes. But it was of no earthly use. After fruitless efforts 
of his own, he called the guard from their tents, and they 
went energetically to work with the light of our lantern. 
Ropes wrenched themselves away from the tent-pins, straps 
broke, whole corners of the tent were torn out, even while 
the men were hanging with all their might to the upright 
poles to try and keep the ridge-pole steady, and clinging to 
the ropes to keep them from loosening entirely and sailing 
off in the air with the canvas. 

In the midst of this fracas, with the shouts of the soldiers 
calling to one another in the inky darkness, the crash of 
thunder and the howling of the tempest, the wife of a brave 
soldier was hiding her head under the blankets, and not one 
sound emerged from this temporary retreat. The great joy 
of getting out to camp at last was too fresh to extract one 
word, one whimper of fear from under the bedding. The 
sunniest day at Fort Riley could not be exchanged, could not 
even be mentioned in the same breath, with that tornado of 
wind and rain. 

The stalwart arms of the soldiers failed at last. Their 
brawny chests were of no more use, thrust against the tent- 
poles, than so many needles. Over went the canvas in a 
heap, the General and his men hanging on to the ridge-pole 
to clear it from the camp bed and save any accident. 

The voices of officers in an adjoining tent called out to 
come over to them. One, half dressed, groped his way to us 
and said there was yet room for more in his place, and, be- 
sides, he had a floor. It was a Sibley, which, having no cor- 
ners with which those Kansas breezes can toy, is much more 



348 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

secure. I was rolled in the blankets and carried through the 
blinding rain to our hospitable neighbors'. The end of a 
tallow dip gave me a glimpse only of many silent forms rolled 
in blankets and radiating from the centre like the spokes of 
a wagon wheel. The officer owning this tent had taken the 
precaution, while at Leavenworth, to have a floor made in 
sections, so that it could be easily stowed away in the bottom 
of a prairie-schooner in marching. 

My husband laid me down, and we were soon two more 
spokes in the human wheel, and asleep in a trice. Next 
morning I wakened to find myself alone, with a tin basin of 
water and a towel for my toilet beside me. My husband had 
to dress me in his underclothing, for everything I had was 
soaked. My shoes' were hopeless, so I was dropped into a 
pair of cavalry boots, and in this unpicturesque costume, 
which I covered as best I could with my wet dress, I was car- 
ried through the mud to the dining-tent, and enthroned a la 
Turk, on a board which the cook produced from some hid- 
ing-place, where he had kept it for kindlings. There were 
not a few repetitions of this stormy reception in the years that 
followed, for Kansas continued its weather vagaries with un- 
ceasing persistency, but this, being my first, is as fresh in my 
mind as if it occurred but yesterday. 

The tent might go down nightly for all 1 cared then. 
Every thought of separation departed, and I gave myself up 
to the happiest hours, clamping about the tent in those old 
troop boots, indifferent whether my shoes ever dried. The 
hours flew too fast, though, for very soon preparations began 
for a scout, which my husband was to command. It took a 
great deal of comforting to reconcile me to remaining behind. 
The General, as usual, had to beg me to remember how 
blessed we were to have been permitted to rejoin each other 
so early in the summer. He told me, over and over again, 
that there was nothing, he felt, that I would not encounter 
to come to him, and that if he was detained, he would send 
for me. Eliza and a faithful soldier were to be left to care for 
us. The cavalry departed, and again the days lengthened 



SACRIFICES OF PIONEER DUTY. 349 

out longer and longer, until each one seemed forty-eight 
hours from sun to sun. We could scarcely take a short walk 
in safety. The Indians were all about us, and daily the sen- 
tinels were driven in, or attempts were made to stampede 
the horses and mules grazing about the post. The few offi- 
cers remaining, in whose care we were placed, came or sent 
every day to our tents, which were up the creek a short dis- 
tance, to inquire what they could do for our comfort. Mrs. 
Gibbs, with her boys, had joined her husband, and we were 
their neighbors. 

It seemed, sometimes, as if we must get outside of our pre- 
scribed limits, the rolling bluffs beyond, tinged with green 
and beginning to have prairie flowers, looked so tempting. 
One evening we beguiled an officer, who was sitting under 
our tent fly, which was stretched in front for a shade, to take 
us for a little walk. Like many another man in the tempo- 
rary possession of wheedling women, he went with us a little, 
and "just a little farther." Diana would have driven all 
thought of everything else save herself out of the gravest 
head. At last our escort saw the dark coming on so fast he 
insisted upon going home, and we reluctantly turned. As 
we came toward the post, the shadows were deepening in the 
twilight, and the figures of the sentinels were not visible. A 
flash, followed by a sound past our ears, that old campaign- 
ers describe as never to be forgotten when first heard, was 
the warning that we three were taken for Indians and fired 
upon by the sentinel. Another flash, but we stood rooted to 
the spot, stunned by surprise. The whizz and zip of the bul- 
let seemed to be only a few inches from my ear. Still we 
were dazed, and had not the officer gained his senses our fate 
would have been then and there decided. The recruit, prob- 
ably himself terrified, kept on sending those deadly little 
missives, with the terrible sound cutting the air around us. 
Our escort shouted, but it was too far for his voice to carry. 
Then he told us to run for our lives to a slight depression in 
the ground, and throw ourselves on our faces. I was coward 
enough to burrow mine in the prairie-grass, and for once in 



350 TENTING ON THE TLAINS. 

my life was devoutly grateful for being slender. Still, as I lay 
there quaking with terror, my body seemed to rise above the 
earth in such a monstrous heap that the dullest marksman, 
if he tried, might easily perforate me with bullets. What 
ages it seemed while we waited in this prostrate position, 
commanded by our escort not to move! The rain of bullets 
at last ceased, and blessed quiet came, but not peace of mind. 
The officer told us he would creep on his hands and knees 
through the hollow portions of the plain about the post, ap- 
proach by the creek side, and inform the sentinels along the 
line, and as soon as they all knew who we were he would 
return for us. With smothered voices issuing from the grass 
where our faces were still crushed as low as we could get 
them, we implored to be allowed to creep on with him. We 
prayed him not to leave us out in the darkness alone. We 
begged him to tell us how he could ever find us again, if once 
he left us on ground that had no distinctive features by which 
he could trace his way back. But he was adamant: we must 
remain; and the ring of authority in his tone, besides the cul- 
prit feeling we had for having endangered his life, kept us 
still at last. As we lay there, our hearts' thumping seemed 
to lift us up in air and imperil anew our wretched existence. 
The pretty, rounded contour of the girl, which she had nat- 
urally taken such delight in, was now a source of agony to 
her, and she moaned out, " Oh! how high I seem to be above 
you! Oh, Libbie, do you think I lie as flat to the ground as 
you do? " and so on, with all the foolish talk of frightened 
women. 

When at last our deliverer came, my relief at such an es- 
cape was almost forgotten in the mortification I felt at having 
made so much trouble; and I thought, with chagrin, how 
quickly the General's gratitude to find we had escaped the 
bullets would be followed by temporary suspension of faith 
regarding my following out his instructions not to run risks 
of danger and wander away from the post. I wrote him an 
abject account of our hazardous performance. I renewed 
every promise. I asked to be trusted again, and from that 



SACRIFICES OF PIONEER DUTY. 35 1 

time there were no more walks outside the beat of the senti- 
nel. 

An intense disappointment awaited me at this time, and 
took away the one hope that had kept up my spirits. I was 
watching, from day to day, an opportunity to go to my hus- 
band at Fort McPherson, for he had said I could come if any 
chance offered. I was so lonely and anxious, I would gladly 
have gone with the scout who took despatches and mail, 
though he had to travel at night and lie in the ravines all day 
to elude the sharp eyes of the Indians. I remember watching 
Wild Bill, as he reported at the commanding officer's tent to 
get despatches for my husband, and wishing with all my 
heart that I could go with him. I know this must seem 
strange to people in the States, whose ideas of scouts are 
made up from stories of shooting affrays, gambling, lynching 
and outlawry. I should have felt myself safe to go any dis- 
tance with those men whom my husband employed as bear- 
ers of despatches. I have never known women treated with 
such reverence as those whom they honored. They were 
touched to see us out there, for they measured well every 
danger of that country; and the class that followed the mov- 
ing railroad towns were their only idea of women, except as 
they caught glimpses of us in camp or on the march. In 
those border-towns, as we were sometimes compelled to walk 
a short distance from the depot to our ambulance, the rough 
characters in whom people had ceased to look for good were 
transformed in their very attitude as we approached. Of 
course, they all knew and sincerely admired the General, 
and, removing their hats, they stepped off the walk and cast 
such looks at me as if I had been little lower than the angels. 
When these men so looked at me, my husband was as proud 
as if a President had manifested pleasure at sight of his wife, 
and amused himself immensely because I said to him, after 
we were well by, that the outlaws had seemed to think me 
possessed of every good attribute, while to myself my faults 
and deficiencies appeared to rise mountains high. I felt that 
if there was a Christian grace that my mother had not striven 



352 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

to implant in me, 1 would cultivate it now, and try to live up 
to the frontier citizen's impression of us as women. 

I think the General would have put me in the care of any 
scout that served him, just as readily as to place me in the 
keeping of the best officer we had. There was not a trust he 
reposed in them that they did not fulfill. Oh, how hard 
it was for me to see them at that time, when starting 
with despatches to my husband, swing themselves into the 
saddle and disappear over the divide! I feel certain, with 
such an end in view as I had, and with the good health that 
the toughening of our campaigns had given me, I could have 
ridden all night and slept on the horse-blanket in the ravines 
daytimes, for a great distance. Had 1 been given the oppor- 
tunity to join my husband by putting myself in their charge, 
there would not have been one moment's hesitation on my 
part. I knew well that when " off duty " the scout is often 
in affrays where lynching and outlawry are every-day events 
of the Western towns; but that had no effect upon these 
men's sense of honor when an officer had reposed a trust in 
them. Wild Bill, California Joe, Buffalo Bill, Comstock, 
Charlie Reynolds, and a group of intrepid men besides, who 
from time to time served under my husband, would have de- 
fended any of us women put in their charge with their lives. 

I remember with distinctness what genuine admiration and 
gratitude filled my heart as these intrepid men rode up to my 
husband's tent to receive orders and despatches. From my 
woman's standpoint, it required far more and a vastly higher 
order of courage to undertake their journeys than to charge 
in battle. With women, every duty or task seems easier 
when shared by others. The most cowardly of us might be 
so impressionable, so sympathetic, in a great cause that we 
saw others preparing to defend, that it would become our 
own; and it is not improbable that enthusiasm might take 
even a timid woman into battle, excited and incited by the 
daring of others, the bray of drums, the clash of arms, the 
call of the trumpet. But I doubt if there are many who 
could go off on a scout of hundreds of miles, and face death 



SACRIFICES OF PIONEER DUTY. 353 

alone. It still seems to me supreme courage. Imagine, 
then, my gratitude, my genuine admiration, when my hus- 
band sent scouts with letters to us, and we saw them in 
returning swing lightly into the saddle and gallop off, ap- 
parently unconcerned, freighted with our messages of af- 
fection. 

Something better than such a journey awaited me, it 
seemed, when two of our Seventh Cavalry officers, Captain 
Samuel Robbins and Colonel William W. Cook, appeared in 
camp at the head of a detachment of cavalry and a small train 
of wagons for supplies. The General had told them to bring 
me back, and an ambulance was with the wagons, in which 
I was to ride. It did not take me long to put our roll of 
bedding and my valise in order; and to say anything about 
the heart in me leaping for joy is even a tame expression to 
describe the delight that ran through every vein in my body. 
To ascend such heights of joy means a corresponding capa- 
bility of descent into a region of suffering, about which I do 
not, even now, like to think, for the memory of my disap- 
pointment has not departed after all these years. The com- 
manding officer of the department was at the post temporar- 
ily, and forbade my going. There is a hateful clause in the 
Army Regulations which gives him control of all camp-fol- 
lowers as well as troops. I ran the whole gamut of insubor- 
dination, mutiny, and revolt, as I threw myself alone on the 
little camp-bed of our tent. This stormy, rebellious season, 
fought out by myself, ended, of course, as everything must 
that gives itself into military jurisdiction, as I was left behind 
in spite of myself; but I might have been enlisted as a soldier 
for five years, and not have been more helpless. I put my 
fingers into my ears, not to hear the call " Boots and Sad- 
dles! "as the troops mounted and rode away. I only felt 
one relief; the officers would tell the General that nothing 
but the all-powerful command forbidding them to take me 
had prevented my doing what he knew I would do if it was 
in my power. I had time also to use my husband as a safety- 
valve, and pour out my vials of wrath against the officer de- 



354 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

taining me, in a long letter filling pages with regret that I 
was prevented going to him. 

The Indians were then at their worst. They roamed up 
and down the route of travel, burning the stations, running 
off stock, and attacking the stages. General Hancock had 
given up all aggressive measures. The plan was, to defend 
the route taken for supplies, and protect the stage company's 
property so far as possible. The railroad building was almost 
entirely abandoned. As our officers and their detachment 
were for a time allowed to proceed quietly on their march to 
McPherson, they rather flattered^ themselves they would see 
nothing of the enemy. Still, every eye watched the long 
ravines tnat intersect the Plains and form such fastnesses for 
the wily foe. There is so little to prepare you for these cuts 
in the smooth surface of the plain, that an ungarded traveler 
comes almost upon a deep fissure in the earth, before dream- 
ing that the lay of the land was not all the seeming level that 
stretches on to sunset. These ravines have small clumps of 
sturdy trees, kept alive in the drought of that arid climate by 
the slight moisture from what is often a buried stream at the 
base. The Indians know them by heart, and not only lie in 
wait in them, but escape by these gullies, that often run on, 
growing deeper and deeper till the bed of a river is reached. 

In one of these ravines, six hundred savages in full war- 
dress were in ambush, awaiting the train of supplies, and 
sprang out from their hiding-place with horrible yells as our 
detachment of less than fifty men approached. Neither 
officer lost his head at a sight that was then new to him. 
Their courage was inborn. They directed the troops to form 
a circle about the wagons, and in this way the little band of 
valiant men defended themselves against attack after attack. 
Not a soldier flinched, nor did a teamster lose control of his 
mules, though the effort to stampede them was incessant, 
This running fight lasted for three hours, when suddenly the 
Indians withdrew. They, with their experienced eyes, first 
saw the reinforcements coming to the relief of our brave fel- 
lows, and gave up the attack. 



SACRIFICES OF PIONEER DUTY. 355 

The first time I saw Colonel Cook after this affair, he said: 
"The moment I found the Indians were on us, and we were 
in for a fight, I thought of you, and said to myself, ' If she 
were in the ambulance, before giving an order I would ride 
up and shoot her.' " " Would you have given me no chance 
for life," I replied, "in case the battle had gone in your 
favor?" "Not one," he said. "I should have been un- 
nerved by the thought of the fate that awaited you, and I 
have promised the General not to take any chances, but to 
kill you before anything worse could happen." Already, in 
these early days of the regiment's history, the accounts of 
Indian atrocities perpetrated on the women of the frontier 
ranches, had curdled the blood of our men, and over the 
camp-fire at night, when these stories were discussed, my 
husband had said to the officers that he should take every 
opportunity to have me with him, but there was but one 
course he wished pursued ; if I was put in charge of any 
one in the regiment, he asked them to kill me if Indians 
should attack the camp or the escort on the march. I have 
referred in general terms to this understanding, but it was on 
this occasion that the seriousness with which the. General's 
request was considered by his brother officers first came home 
to me. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

A FLOOD AT FORT HAYS. 

Before General Custer left for Fort McPherson, he re- 
moved our tents to a portion of that branch of Big Creek on 
which the post was established. He selected the highest 
ground he could find, knowing that the rainy season was not 
yet over, and hoping that, if the camp were on a knoll, the 
ground would drain readily and dry quickly after a storm. 
We were not a great distance from the main stream and the 
fort, but still too far to recognize anyone that might be walk- 
ing in garrison. The stream on which we were located was 
tortuous, and on a bend above us the colonel commanding, 
his adjutant and his escort were established. Between us 
and the fort, General and Mrs. Gibbs were camped, while the 
tents of a few officers on detached duty were still farther on. 
The sentinel's beat was along a line between us and the high 
ground, where the Indians were likely to steal upon us from 
the bluffs. This guard walked his tour of duty on a line 
parallel with the stream, but was too far from it to observe 
the water closely. Each little group of tents made quite a 
show of canvas, as we had abundance of room to spread out, 
and the quartermaster was not obliged to limit us to any giv- 
en number of tents. We had a hospital tent for our sitting- 
room, with a wall-tent pitched behind and opening out of the 
larger one, for our bedroom. There was a wall-tent for the 
kitchen, near, and behind us, the " A " tent for the soldier 
whom the General had left to take care of us in his absence. 
We were as safely placed, as to Indians, as was possible in 
such a country. As is the custom in military life, the officers 

356 



A FLOOD AT FORT HAYS. 357 

either came every day, or sent to know if I could think of 
anything they could do for my comfort. The General had 
thought of everything, and, besides, I did my best not to 
have any wants. I was as capable of manufacturing needs as 
anyone, and could readily trump up a collection in garrison, 
but I was rendered too wary by the uncertainty of my tenure 
of that (to me) valuable little strip of ground that held my 
canvas house, to allow my presence to be brought home to 
those gallant men as a trouble or a responsibility. The idea 
that I might have to retreat eastward was a terror, and kept 
in subjection any passing wish I might indulge to have any- 
thing done for me. 1 would gladly have descended into one 
of the cellar-like habitations that were so common in Kansas 
then, and had my food handed down to me, if this would 
have enabled the officers to forget that I was there, until the 
expedition returned from the Platte. Yet the elements were 
against me, and did their best to interfere with my desire to 
obliterate myself, as far as being an anxiety to others was 
concerned. 

One night we had retired, and were trying to believe that 
the thunder was but one of those peculiar menacing volleys 
of cloud-artillery that sometimes passed over harmlessly; but 
we could not sleep, the roar and roll of thunder was so alarm- 
ing. There is no describing lightning on the Plains. While 
a storm lasts, there seems to be an incessant glare. To be 
sure, there is not the smallest flash that does not illumine the 
tent, and there is no way of hiding from the blinding light. 
In a letter written to my husband while the effect of the fright 
was still fresh on my mind, I told him "the heavens seemed 
to shower down fire upon the earth, and in one minute 
and a half we counted twenty-five distinct peals of thunder." 
There seemed to be nothing for us to do but to lie quaking 
and terrified under the covers. The tents of the officers were 
placed at some distance from ours intentionally, as it is im- 
possible to speak low enough, under canvas, to avoid being 
heard, unless a certain space intervenes. It is the custom to 
allow a good deal of ground to intervene, if the guard is so 



358 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

posted as to command the approach to all the tents. The 
result was, that we dared not venture to try to reach a neigh- 
bor; we simply had to endure the situation, as no cry could 
be heard above the din of the constantly increasing storm. 
In the midst of this quaking and misery, the voice of some 
officers outside called to ask if we were afraid. Finding that 
the storm was advancing to a tornado, they had decided to 
return to us and render assistance if they could, or at least 
to quiet our fears. The very sound of their voices calmed us, 
and we dressed and went into the outer tent to admit them. 
The entrance had been made secure by leather straps and 
buckles that the General had the saddler put on; and in 
order to strengthen the tents against these hurricanes, which 
we had already learned were so violent and sudden, he had 
ordered poles at each corner sunk deep into the ground. 
These, being notched, had saplings laid across either side, 
and to these the tent-ropes were bound. We were thus 
seemingly secured between two barriers. He even went 
further in his precautions, and fastened a picket-rope, which 
is a small cable of itself, to either end of the ridge-pole, 
stretching it at the front and rear, and fasting it with an iron 
pin driven into the ground. As we opened two or three of 
the straps to admit the officers and Eliza, who always over- 
came every obstacle to get to me in danger, the wind drove 
in a sheet of rain upon us, and we found it difficult to strap 
the opening again. As for the guy-ropes and those that tied 
the tent at the sides, all this creaking, loosening cordage 
proved how little we could count upon its stability. The 
great tarpaulin, of the heaviest canvas made, which was 
spread over our larger tent and out in the front for a porch, 
flapped wildly, lashing our poor little "rag house " as if in a 
fury of rage. Indeed, the whole canvas seemed as if it might 
have been a cambric handkerchief, for the manner in which 
it was wrenched and twisted above and on all sides of us. 
The tallow candle was only kept lighted by surrounding it 
with boxes to protect its feeble flame from the wind. The 
rain descended in such sheets, driven by the hurricane, that 



A FLOOD AT FORT HAYS. 359 

it even pressed in the tent-walls; and in spite of the trenches, 
that every good campaigner digs about the tent, we were 
almost inundated by the streams that entered under the 
lower edge of the walls. 

The officers, finding we were sure to be drenched, began 
to fortify us for the night. They feared the tent would go 
down, and that the ridge-pole of a hospital-tent, being so 
much larger than that of a wall-tent, would do some fatal in- 
jury to us. They piled all the available furniture in a hollow 
square, leaving a little space for us. Fortunately, some one, 
coming down from the post a few days before, had observed 
that we had no table. There was no lumber at the post, and 
the next best thing was to send us a zinc-covered board which 
had first served for a stove ; secondly, with the addition of 
rude supports, as our table, and now did duty in its third 
existence as a life-preserver ; for the ground was softening 
with the moisture, and we could not protect our feet, except 
for the narrow platform on which we huddled. At last the 
booming of the thunder seemed to abate somewhat, though 
the wind still shrieked and roared over the wide plain, as it 
bore down upon our frail shelter. But the tent, though 
swaying and threatening to break from its moorings, had 
been true to us through what we supposed to be the worst of 
the tempest, and we began to put some confidence in the 
cordage and picket-pins. The officers decided to return to 
their tents, promising to come again should there be need, 
and we reluctantly permitted them to go. Eliza put down 
something on which we could step over the pools into the 
other tent, and we fell into bed, exhausted with terror and 
excitement, hardly noticing how wet and cold we and the 
blankets were. 

Hardly had we fallen into a doze, when the voice of the 
guard at the entrance called out to us to get up and make 
haste for our lives ; the flood was already there ! We were so 
agitated that it was difficult even to find the clothes that we 
had put under the pillow to keep them from further soaking, 
much more to get into them. It was then impossible to re- 



360 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

main inside of the tent. We crept through the opening, and, 
to our horror, the lightning revealed the creek— which we 
had last seen, the night before, a little rill in the bottom of 
the gully — now on a level with the high banks. The tops of 
good-sized trees, which fringed the stream, were barely vis- 
ible, as the current swayed the branches in its onward sweep. 
The water had risen in that comparatively short time thirty- 
five feet, and was then creeping into the kitchen tent, which, 
as usual, was pitched near the bank. I believe no one at- 
tempted to account for those terrific rises in the streams, 
except as partly due to water-spouts, which were common in 
the early days of Kansas. I have seen the General hold his 
watch in his hand after the bursting of a rain-cloud, and keep 
reckoning for the soldier who was measuring with a stick at 
the stream's bed, and for a time it recorded an inch a minute. 

Of course the camp was instantly astir after the alarm of 
the guard. But the rise of the water is so insidious often, 
that a sentinel walking his beat a few yards away will some- 
times be unconscious of it until the danger is upon the troops. 
The soldiers, our own man, detailed as striker, and Eliza, 
were not so ''stampeded," as they expressed it, as to forget 
our property. Almost everything that we possessed in the 
world was there, much of our property being fortunately still 
boxed. I had come out to camp with a valise, but the wagon- 
train afterward brought most of our things, as we supposed 
we had left Fort Riley forever. The soldiers worked like 
beavers to get everything they could farther from the water, 
upon a little rise of ground at one side of our tents. Eliza, 
the coolest of all, took command, and we each carried what 
we could, forgetting the lightning in our excitement. 

The officers who had come to us in the early part of the 
tempest now returned. They found their own camp unap- 
proachable. The group of tents having been pitched on a 
bend in the crooked stream, which had the advantage of the 
circle of trees that edged the water, was now found to be in 
the worst possible locality, as the torrent had swept over the 
narrow strip of earth and left the camp on a newly made 



A FLOOD AT FORT HAYS. 36 1 

island, perfectly inaccessible. The lives of the men and 
horses stranded on this little water-locked spot were in im- 
minent peril. The officers believed us when we said we would 
do what we could to care for ourselves if they would go at 
once, as they had set out to do, and find succor for the sol- 
diers. It was a boon to have something that it was necessary 
to do, which kept us from absolute abandonment to terror. 
We hardly dared look toward the rushing torrent ; the agony 
of seeing the water steal nearer and nearer our tent was almost 
unendurable. As we made our way from the heap of house- 
hold belongings, back and forth to the tent, carrying burdens 
that we could not even have lifted in calmer moments, the 
lightning became more vivid and the whole arc above us 
seemed aflame. We were aghast at what the brilliant light 
revealed. Between the bluffs that rose gradually from the 
stream, and the place where we were on its banks, a wide 
newly made river spread over land that had been perfectly 
dry, and, as far as any one knew, had never been inundated 
before. The water had overflowed the banks of the stream 
above us, and swept across the slight depression that inter- 
vened between our ground and the hills. We were left on 
that narrow neck of land, and the water on either side of us, 
seen in the lightning's glare, appeared like two boundless 
seas. The creek had broken over its banks and divided us 
from the post below, while the garrison found themselves on 
an island also, as the water took a new course down there, 
and cut them off from the bluffs. This was a misfortune to 
us, as we had so small a number of men and sorely needed 
what help the post could have offered. 

While we ran hither and thither, startled at the shouts of 
the officers and men as they called to one another, dreading 
some new terror, our hearts sinking with uncontrollable fright 
at the wild havoc the storm was making, the two dogs that 
the General valued, Turk, the bull-dog, and Rover, his fa- 
vorite fox-hound, broke their chains and flew at each other's 
throat. Their warfare had been long and bloody, and they 
meant that night to end the contest. The ferocity of the 



362 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

bull-dog was not greater than that of the old hound. The 
soldiers sprang at them again and again to separate them. 
The fangs of each showed partly buried in the other's throat, 
but finally, one powerful man choked the bull-dog into re- 
laxing his hold. The remnants of the gashed and bleeding 
contestants were again tied at a secure distance, and the sol- 
diers renewed their work to prevent the tents from falling. 
I remember that in one gale, especially furious, seventeen 
clung to the guy-rope in front and saved the canvas from 
downfall. 

But, after all, something worse awaited us than all this fury 
of the elements and the dread of worse to come to ourselves ; 
for the reality of the worst that can come to anyone was then 
before us without a warning. There rang out on the air, 
piercing our ears even in the uproar of the tempest, sounds 
that no one, once hearing, ever forgets. They were the de- 
spairing cries of drowning men. In an instant our danger 
was forgotten ; but the officers and men were scattered along 
the stream beyond our call, and Eliza was now completely 
unnerved. We ran up and down the bank, wringing our 
hands, she calling to me, " Oh, Miss Libbie ! what shall we 
do ? What shall we do ? " We tried to scream to those dark 
forms hurrying by us, that help might come farther down. 
Alas ! the current grew more furious as the branch poured 
into the main stream, and we could distinguish, by the oft- 
repeated glare of the lightning, the men waving their arms 
imploringly as they were swept down with tree-trunks, masses 
of earth, and heaps of rubbish that the current was drifting 
by. We were helpless to attempt their rescue. There can be 
few moments in existence that hold such agonizing suffering 
as those where one is appealed to for life, and is powerless to 
give succor. I thought of the ropes about our tent, and ran 
to unwind one ; but they were lashed to the poles, stiff with 
moisture, and tied with sailors' intricate knots. In a frenzy, 
I tugged at the fastenings, bruising my hands and tearing the 
nails. The guy-ropes were equally unavailable, for no knife 
we had could cut such a cable. 



A FLOOD AT FORT HAYS. 363 

Eliza, beside herself with grief to think she could not help 
the dying soldiers with whom she had been such a favorite, 
came running to me where I was insanely struggling with 
the cordage, and cried, "Miss Libbie, there's a chance for 
us with one man. He's caught in the branches of a tree; 
but I've seen his face, and he's alive. He's most all of him 
under water, and the current is a-switchin' him about so he 
can't hold out long. Miss Libbie, there's my clothes-line we 
could take, but I can't do it, I can't do it ! Miss Libbie, you 
wouldn't have me to do it, would you ? For where will we 
get another?" The grand humanity that illumined the 
woman's face, full of the nobility of desire to save life, was 
so interwoven with frugality and her inveterate habit of pro- 
tecting our things, that I hardly know how the controversy 
in her own mind would have ended if I had not flown to the 
kitchen tent to get the clothes-line. The current swayed the 
drowning man so violently he was afraid to loosen his hold 
of the branches to reach the rope as we threw it to him over 
and over again, and it seemed momentarily that he must be 
torn from our sight. The hue of death was on his face- 
that terrible blue look— while the features were pinched with 
suffering, and the eyes starting from their sockets. He was 
naked to the waist, and the chill of the water, and of those 
hours that come before dawn, had almost benumbed the fin- 
gers that clutched the branches. Eliza, like me, has forgot- 
ten nothing that happened during that horrible night, and I 
give part of her story, the details of which it is so difficult 
for me to recall with calmness : 

" Miss Libbie, don't you mind when we took the clothes- 
line an' went near to him as we could get, he didn't seem to 
understan' what we was up to? We made a loop and showed 
it to him, when a big flash of lightnin' came and made a 
glare, and tried to call to him to put it over his head. The 
noise of the water, and the crashin'of the logs that was comin' 
down, beside the thunder, drownded out our voices. Well, 
we worked half an hour over that man. He thought you 
and me, Miss Libbie, couldn't pull him in— that we wasn't 



364 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

strong enough. He seemed kind o' dazed-like; and the only 
way I made him know what the loop was for, I put it on over 
my body and made signs. Even then, he was so swept un- 
der that part of the bank, and it was so dark, I didn't think 
we could get him. I could hear him bubblin', bellowin', 
drownin' and gaggin'. Well, we pulled him in at last, 
though I got up to my waist in water. He was cold and blue, 
his teeth chatterin'; he just shuck and shuck, and his eyes 
was perfectly wild. We had to help him, for he could hardly 
walk to the cook tent. I poured hot coffee down him; and, 
Miss Libbie, you tore aroun' in the dark and found your way 
to the next tent for whisky, and the lady that never was 
known to keep any before, had some then. And I wrapped 
the drownded man in the blouse the Ginnel give me. It was 
cold, and I was wet and I needed it, Miss Libbie; but didn't 
that man, as soon as ever his teeth stopped a-chatterin', jest 
get up and walk off with it? And, Miss Libbie, the Ginnel 
wrote to you after that, from some expedition, that he had 
seen the soldier Eliza gave her clothes-line to save, and he 
sent his thanks and asked how I was, and said I had saved 
his life. I just sent back word, in the next letter you wrote 
the Ginnel, to ask if that man said anything about my blouse 
he wore off that night. You gave one of the Ginnel's blue 
shirts to a half-naked, drownded man. We saved two more 
and wrapped 'em in blankets, and you rubbed 'em with red 
pepper, and kept the fire red-hot, and talked to them, tryin' 
to get the shiver and the scare out of 'em. I tell you, Miss 
Libbie, we made a fight for their lives, if ever any one did. 
The clothes-line did it all. One was washed near to our tent, 
and I grabbed his hand. We went roun' with our lanterns, 
and it was so dark we 'spected every moment to step into a 
watery grave, for the water was so near us, and the flashes of 
lightnin' would show that it was a-comin' on and on. Turk 
and Rover would fight just by looking at each other, and in 
all that mess they fell on each other, an' I was sure they was 
goin' to kill each other, and, oh, my! the Ginnel would have 
taken on so about it ! But the soldiers dragged them apart." 



A FLOOD AT FORT HAYS. 365 

Seven men were drowned near our tent, and their agoniz- 
ing cries, when they were too far out in the current for us to 
throw our line, are sounds that will never be stilled. The 
men were from the Colonel's escort on the temporary island 
above us. The cavalrymen attempted, as the waters rose 
about them, to swim their horses to the other shore; but all 
were lost who plunged in, for the violence of the current 
made swimming an impossibility. A few negro soldiers be- 
longing to the infantry were compelled to remain where they 
were, though the water stood three feet in some of the tents. 
When the violence of the storm had abated a little, one of 
the officers swam the narrowest part of the stream, and, 
taking a wagon-bed, made a ferry, so that with the help of 
soldiers that he had left behind holding one end of the rope 
he had taken over, the remaining soldiers were rescued and 
brought down to our little strip of land. Alas ! this nar- 
rowed and narrowed, until we all appeared to be doomed. 
The officers felt their helplessness when they realized that 
four women looked to them for protection. They thought 
over every imaginable plan. It was impossible to cross the 
inundated part of the plain, though their horses were sad- 
dled, with the thought that each one might swim with us 
through the shallowest of the water. They rode into this 
stretch of impassable prairie, but the water was too swift, 
even then, to render it anything but perilous. They decided 
that if the water continued to rise with the same rapidity we 
would be washed away, as we could not swim, nor had we 
strength to cling to anything. This determined them to re- 
sort to a plan that, happily, we knew nothing of until the 
danger was passed. We were to be strapped to the Gatling 
guns as an anchorage. These are, perhaps, the lightest of 
all artillery, but might have been heavy enough to resist the 
action of what current rose over our island. There would 
have been one chance in ten thousand of rescue under such 
circumstances, but I doubt if being pinioned there, watching 
the waves closing around us, would have been as merciful as 
permitting us to float off into a quicker death. 



366 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

While the officers and men with us were working with all 
their might to save lives and property, the little post was be- 
leaguered. The flood came so unexpectedly that the first 
known of it was the breaking in of the doors of the quarters. 
The poorly built, leaky, insecure adobe houses had been hereto- 
fore a protection, but the freshet filled them almost instantly 
with water. The quarters of the laundresses were especially en- 
dangered, being on even lower ground than the officers' 
houses. The women were hurried out in their night-dresses, 
clasping their crying children, while they ran to places 
pointed out by the officers, to await orders. Even then, one 
of our Seventh Cavalry officers, who happened to be tempo- 
rarily at the garrison, clambered up to the roof of an adobe 
house to discover whether the women of his regiment were 
in peril. The same plan for rescue was adopted at the post 
that had been partly successful above. A ferry was impro- 
vised out of a wagon-bed, and into this were collected the 
women and children. The post was thus emptied in time to 
prevent loss of life. First the women, then the sick from the 
hospital, and finally the drunken men; for the hospital liquor 
was broken into, and it takes but a short time to make a sol- 
dier helplessly drunk. The Government property had to be 
temporarily abandoned, and a great deal was destroyed or 
swept away by the water. It was well that the camp women 
were inured to hardship, for the condition in which the cold, 
wet, frightened creatures landed, without any protection from 
the storm, on the opposite bank, was pitiful. One laundress 
had no screams of terror or groans of suffering over physical 
fright; her wails were loud and continuous because her sav- 
ings had been left in the quarters, and facing death in that 
frail box, as she was pulled through the turbid flood, was 
nothing to the pecuniary loss. It was all the men could do to 
keep her from springing into the wagon- bed to return and 
search for her money. 

On still another branch of Big Creek there was another 
body of men wrestling with wind and wave. Several com- 
panies, marching to New Mexico, had encamped for the 



A FLOOD AT FORT HAYS. 367 

night, and the freshet came as suddenly upon them as upon 
all of us. The colonel in command had to seize his wife, 
and wade up to his arms in carrying her to a safe place. Even 
then, they were warned that the safety was but temporary. The 
ambulance was harnessed up, and they drove through water 
that almost swept them away, before they reached higher 
ground. There was a strange coincidence about the death, 
eventually, of this officer's wife. A year afterward they were 
encamped on a Texas stream, with similar high banks, be- 
tokening freshets, and the waters rose suddenly, compelling 
them to take flight in the ambulance again; but this time 
the wagon was overturned by the current, and the poor wo- 
man was drowned. 

When the day dawned, we were surrounded by water, and 
the havoc about us was dreadful. But what a relief it was 
to have the rain cease, and feel the comfort of daylight! 
Eliza broke up her bunk to make a fire, and we had breakfast 
for everybody, owing to her self-sacrifice ! The water began 
to subside, and the place looked like avast laundry. All the 
camp was flying with blankets, bedding and clothes. We 
were drenched, of course, having no dry shoes even, to re- 
place those in which we had raced about in the mud during 
the night. But these were small inconveniences, compared 
with the agony of terror that the night had brought. As the 
morning advanced, and the stream fell constantly, we were 
horrified by the sight of a soldier, swollen beyond all recogni- 
tion, whose drowned body was imbedded in the side of the 
bank, where no one could reach it, and where we could not 
escape the sight of it. He was one who had implored us to 
save him, and our failure to do so seemed even more terrible 
than the night before, as we could not keep our fascinated 
gaze from the stiffened arm that seemed to have been stretch- 
ed out entreatingly. 

Though we were thankful for our deliverance, the day was a 
depressing one , for the horror of the drowning men near uscould 
not be put out of our minds. As night came on again, the clouds 
began to look ominous; it was murky, and it rained a little. 




3 68 



A FLOOD AT FORT HAYS. 369 

At dark word came from the fort, to which some of the 
officers had returned, that we must attempt to get to the high 
ground, as the main stream, Big Creek, was again rising. 
All the officers were alarmed. They kept measuring the ad- 
vance of the stream themselves, and guards were stationed 
at intervals, to note the rise of the water and report its prog- 
ress. The torch-lights they held were like tiny fire -flies, so 
dark was the night. An ambulance was driven to our tent 
to make the attempt to cross the water, which had abated 
there slightly, and, if possible, to reach the divide beyond. 
One of the officers went in advance, on horseback, to try the 
depth of the water. It was a failure, and the others forbade 
our going, thinking it would be suicidal. While they were 
arguing, Diana and I were wrapping ourselves in what out- 
side garments we had in the tent. She had been plucky 
through the terrible night, writing next morning to the Gen- 
eral that she never wished herself for one moment at home, 
and that even with such a fright she could never repay us for 
bringing her out to a life she liked so much. Yet as we 
tremblingly put on our outside things, she began to be agi- 
tated over a subject so ridiculous in such a solemn and dan- 
gerous hour, that I could not keep my face from what might 
have been a smile under less serious circumstances. Her 
trepidation was about her clothes. She asked me anxiously 
what she should do for dresses next day, and insisted that 
she must take her small trunk. In vain I argued that we had 
nowhere to go. We could but sit in the ambulance till dawn, 
even if we were fortunate enough to escape to the bluff. She 
still persisted, saying, "What if we should reach a fort, and 
I was obliged to appear in the gown I now wear ? " I asked 
her to remember that the next fort was eighty miles distant, 
with enough water between it and us to float a ship, not to 
mention roving bands of Indians lying in wait; but this by no 
means quieted her solicitude about her appearance. At last 
I suggested her putting on three dresses, one over the other, 
and then taking, in the little trunk from which she could not 
part, the most necessary garments and gowns. When I 



370 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

went out to get into the wagon, after the other officers had 
left, and found our one escort determined still to venture, I 
was obliged to explain that Diana could not make up her 
mind to part with her trunk. He was astounded that at such 
an hour, in such a dangerous situation, clothes should ever 
enter anyone's head. But the trunk appeared at the entrance 
of the tent, to verify my words. He argued that with a 
wagon loaded with several people, it would be perilous to 
add unnecessary weight in driving through such ground. 
Then, with all his chivalry, working night and day to help 
us, there came an instant when he could no longer do justice 
to the occasion in our presence; so he stalked off to one side, 
and what he said to himself was lost in the growl of the 
thunder. 

The trunk was secured in the ambulance, and Diana, Eliza 
and I followed. There we sat, getting wetter, more fright- 
ened and less plucky as the time rolled on. Again were we 
forbidden to attempt this mode of escape, and condemned to 
return to the tent, which was vibrating in the wind and 
menacing a downfall. No woman ever wished more ardently 
for a brown-stone front than I longed for a dug-out. Any 
hole in the side of a bank would have been a palace to me, 
living as I did in momentary expectation of no covering at 
all. The rarest, most valuable of homes meant to me some- 
thing that could not blow away. Those women who take 
refuge in these days in their cyclone cellar — now the popular 
architecture of the West — will know well how comforting it 
is to possess something that cannot be readily lifted up and 
deposited in a neighboring county. 

With the approach of midnight, there was again an abate- 
ment in the rain, and the water of the stream ceased to creep 
toward us; so the officers, gaining some confidence in its 
final subsidence, again left us to go to their tents. For three 
days the clouds and thunder threatened, but at last the sun 
appeared. In a letter to my husband, dated June 9, 1867, I 
wrote: " When the sun came out yesterday, we could almost 
have worshipped it, like the heathen. We have had some 



A FLOOD AT FORT HAYS. 37 1 

dreadful days, and had not all the officers been so kind to us, 
I do not know how we could have endured what we have. 
Even some whom we do not know have shown the greatest 
solicitude in our behalf. We are drenching wet still, and 
everything we have is soggy with moisture. Last evening, 
after two sleepless nights, Mrs. Gibbs and her two boys, 
Alphie and Blair, Diana and I, were driven across the plain, 
from which the water is fast disappearing, to the coveted 
divide beyond. It is not much higher, as you know, than 
the spot where our tents are; but it looked like a mountain, 
as we watched it, while the water rose all around us. Some 
of the officers had tents pitched there, and we women were 
given the Sibley tent with the floor, that sheltered me in the 
other storm. We dropped down in heaps, we were so ex- 
hausted for want of sleep, and it was such a relief to know 
that at last the water could not reach us." The letter (con- 
tinued from day to day, as no scouts were sent out) described 
the moving of the camp to more secure ground. It was in- 
cessant motion, for no place was wholly satisfactory to the 
officers. I confessed that I was a good deal unnerved by the 
frights, that every sound startled me, and a shout from a 
soldier stopped my breathing almost, so afraid was I that it 
was the alarm of another freshet — while the clouds were never 
more closely watched than at that time. 

A fresh trouble awaited me, for General Hancock came to 
camp from Harker, and brought bad news. The letter con- 
tinues: "The dangers and terrors of the last few days are 
nothing, compared with the information that General Han- 
cock brings. It came near being the last proverbial ' straw.' 
I was heart-sick, indeed, when I found that our schemes for 
being together soon were so ruthlessly crushed. General 
Hancock says that it looks as if you would be in the Depart- 
ment of the Platte for several months — at which he is justly 
indignant — but he is promised your return before the summer 
is ended. He thinks, that if I want to go so badly, I may 
manage to make you a flying visit up there; and this is all 
that keeps me up. The summer here, so far separated from 



372 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

you, seems to stretch out like an arid desert. If there were 
the faintest shadow of a chance that I would see you here 
again, I would not go, as we are ordered to. I will come 
back here again if I think there is the faintest prospect of 
seeing you. If you say so, I will go to Fort McPherson on 
the cars, if I get the ghost of an opportunity." 

Eliza, in ending her recollections of the flood at Fort Hays, 
says, " Well, Miss Libbie, when the water rose so, and the 
men was a-drownin', I said to myself in the night, if God 
spared me, that would be the last of war for me; but when 
the waters went down and the sun came out, then we began 
to cheer each other up, and were willing to go right on from 
there, if we could, for we wanted to see the Ginnel so bad. 
But who would have thought that the stream would have 
risen around the little knoll as it did ? The Ginnel thought 
he had fixed us so nice, and he had, Miss Libbie, for it was 
the knoll that saved us. The day the regiment left for Fort 
McPherson the Ginnel staid behind till dark, gettin' every- 
thin' in order to make you comfortable, and he left at 12 
o'clock at night, with his escort, to join the troops. He'd 
rather ride ride all night than miss that much of his visit 
with you. Before he went, he came to my tent to say good- 
by. I stuck my hand out, and said, ' Ginnel, I don't like to 
see you goin' off in this wild country, at this hour of the 
night.' . . . ' I have to go,' he says, ' wherever I'm called. 
Take care of Libbie, Eliza,' and puttin' spurs to his horse, 
off he rode. Then I thought they'd certainly get him, ridin' 
right into the mouth of 'em. You know how plain the sound 
comes over the prairie, with nothin', no trees or anythin', to 
interfere. Well, in the night I was hearin' quare sounds. 
Some might have said they was buffalo, but on thy went, 
lumpety lump, lumpety lump, and they was Indians ! Miss 
Libbie, sure as you're born, they was Indians gettin' out of 
the way, and, oh ! I was so scart for the Ginnel." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

ORDERED BACK TO FORT HARKER. 

After the high-water experience, our things were scarcely 
dry before I found, for the second time, what it was to be 
under the complete subjection of military rule. The fiat was 
issued that we women must depart from camp and return to 
garrison, as it was considered unsafe for us to remain. It 
was an intense disappointment; for though Fort Hays and 
our camp were more than dreary after the ravages of the 
storm, to leave there meant cutting myself off from any other 
chance that might come in my way of joining my husband, 
or of seeing him at our camp. Two of the officers and an 
escort of ten mounted men, going to Fort Harker on duty, 
accompanied our little cortege of departing women. At the 
first stage-station the soldiers all dismounted as we halted, 
and managed by some pretext to get into the dug-out and 
buy whiskey. Not long after we were again en route I saw 
one of the men reel on his saddle, and he was lifted into the 
wagon that carried forage for the mules and horses. One by 
one, all were finally dumped into the wagons by the team- 
sters, who fortunately were sober, and the troopers' horses 
were tied behind the vehicles, and we found ourselves with- 
out an escort. Plains whiskey is usually very rapid in its 
effect, but the stage-station liquor was concocted from drugs 
that had power to lay out even a hard-drinking old cavalry- 
man like a dead person in what seemed no time at all. 
Eliza said * they only needed to smell it, 'twas so deadly 
poison." A barrel of tolerably good whiskey sent from the 
States was, by the addition of drugs, made into several bar- 
rels after it reached the Plains. 

373 



374 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

The hours of that march seemed endless. We were help- 
less, and knew that we were going over ground that was hotly 
contested by the red man. We rose gradually to the summit 
of each divide, and looked with anxious eyes into every de- 
pression; but we were no sooner relieved to find it safe, than 
my terrors began as to what the next might reveal. When 
we came upon an occasional ravine, it represented to my 
frightened soul any number of Indians in ambush. 

In that country the air is so clear that every object on the 
brow of a small ascent of ground is silhouetted against the 
deep blue of the sky. The Indians place little heaps of stones 
on these slight eminences, and lurk behind them to watch 
the approach of troops. Every little pile of rocks seemed, 
to my strained eyes, to hide the head of a savage. They 
even appeared to move, and this effect was heightened by 
the waves of heat that hover over the surface of the earth 
under that blazing sun. I was thoroughly frightened, doubt- 
less made much more so because I had nothing else to think 
of, as the end of the journey would not mean for me what 
the termination of ever so dangerous a march would have 
been in the other direction. Had I been going over such 
country to join my husband, the prospect would have put 
temporary courage into every nerve. During the hours of 
daylight the vigilance of the officers was unceasing. They 
knew that one of the most hazardous days of their lives was 
upon them. They felt intensely the responsibility of the care 
of us; and I do not doubt, gallant as they were, that they 
mentally pronounced anathemas upon officers who had want- 
ed to see their wives so badly that they had let them come 
into such a country. When we had first gone over the route, 
however, its danger was not a circumstance to this time. Our 
eyes rarely left the horizon ; they were strained to discern 
signs that had come to be familiar, even by our hearing them 
discussed so constantly; and we, still novices in the experi- 
ence of that strange country, had seen for ourselves enough 
to prove that no vigilance was too great. If on the monoto- 
nous landscape a whirl of dust arose, instantly it was a mat- 



ORDERED BACK TO FORT IIARKER. 375 

ter of doubt whether it meant our foe or one of the strange 
eccentricities of that part of the world. The most peculiar 
communions are those that the clouds seem to have with the 
earth, which result in a cone of dust whirlpooling itself 
straight in the air, while the rest of the earth is apparently 
without commotion, bearing no relation to the funnel that 
seems to struggle upward and be dissolved into the passing 
wind. With what intense concentration we watched to see 
it so disappear ! If the puff of dust continued to spread, the 
light touching it into a deeper yellow, and finally revealing 
some darker shades, and at last shaping itself into dusky 
forms, we were in agony of suspense until the field-glasses 
proved that it was a herd of antelopes fleeing from our ap- 
proach. There literally seemed to be not one inch of the 
way that the watchful eyes of the officers, the drivers, or we 
women were not strained to discover every object that speck- 
ed the horizon or rose on the trail in front of us. 

With all the terror and suspense of those dragging miles, 
I could not be insensible to the superb and riotous colors of 
the wild flowers that carpeted our way. It was the first time 
that I had ever been where the men could not be asked, and 
were not willing, to halt or let me stop and gather one of 
every kind. The gorgeousness of the reds and orange of 
those prairie blossoms was a surprise to me. I had not 
dreamed that the earth could so glow with rich tints. The 
spring rains had soaked the ground long enough to start 
into life the wonderful dyes that for a brief time emblazon 
the barren wilderness. The royal livery floats but a short 
period over their temporary domain, for the entire cessation 
of even the night dews, and the intensity of the scorching 
sun, shrivels the vivid, flaunting, feathery petals, and burns 
the venturesome roots down into the earth. What presum- 
ing things, to toss their pennants over so inhospitable aland ! 
But what a boon to travelers like ourselves to see, for even 
the brief season, some tint besides the burnt umber and yel- 
low ochre of those plains! All the short existence of these 
flowers is condensed into the color, tropical in richness; not 



376 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

one faint waft of perfume floated on the air about us. But it 
was all we ought to have asked, that their brilliant heads ap- 
pear out of such soil. This has served to make me very ap- 
preciative of the rich exhalation of the Eastern gardens. I 
do not dare say what the first perfume of the honeysuckle is 
to me, each year now; nor would I infringe upon the few 
adjectives vouchsafed the use of a conventional Eastern 
woman when, as it happened this year, the orange blossoms, 
white jessamine and woodbine wafted their sweet breaths in 
my face as a welcome from one garden to which good for- 
tune led me. I remember the starvation days of that odor- 
less life, when, seeing rare colors, we instantly expected rich 
odors, but found them not, and 1 try to adapt myself to the 
customs of the country, and not rave, but, like the children, 
keep up a mighty thinking. 

Buffalo, antelope, blacktail deer, coyote, jack-rabbits, 
scurried out of our way on that march, and we could not 
stop to follow. I was looking always for some new sight, 
and, after the relief that I felt when each object as we neared 
it turned out to be harmless, was anxious to see a drove of 
wild horses. There were still herds to be found between the 
Cimmaron and the Arkansas rivers. The General told me 
of seeing one of the herds on a march, spoke with great ad- 
miration and enthusiasm of the leader, and described him as 
splendid in carriage, and bearing his head in the proudest, 
loftiest manner as he led his followers. They were not large; 
they must have been the Spanish pony of Cortez' time, as 
we know that the horse is not indigenous to America. The 
flowing mane and tail, the splendid arch of the neck, and the 
proud head carried so loftily, give the wild horses a larger, 
taller appearance than is in reality theirs. Few ever saw the 
droves of wild horses more than momentarily. They run 
like the wind. 

After the introduction of the dromedary into Texas, many 
years since, for transportation of supplies over that vast ter- 
ritory, one was brought up to Colorado. Because of the im- 
mense runs it could make without water, it was taken into 




». _-iLC 



377 



378 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

the region frequented by the wild horses, and when they 
were sighted, the dromedary was started in pursuit. Two 
were run down, and found to be nearly dead when overtaken. 
But the poor dromedary suffered so from the prickly-pear 
filling the soft ball of its feet, that no farther pursuit could 
ever be undertaken. 

I had to be content with the General's description, for no 
wild horses came in our way. But there was enough to 
satisfy any one in the way of game. The railroad had not 
then driven to the right and left the inhabitants of that vast 
prairie. Our country will never again see the Plains dotted 
with game of all sorts. The railroad stretches its iron bands 
over these desert wastes, and scarcely a skulking coyote, 
hugging the ground and stealing into gulches, can be discov- 
ered during a whole day's journey. 

As the long afternoon was waning, we were allowed to get 
out and rest a little while, for we had reached what was called 
the " Home Station," so called because at this place there was 
a woman, then the only one along the entire route. I looked 
with more admiration than I could express on this fearless 
creature, long past the venturesome time of early youth, 
when some dare much for excitement. She was as calm and 
collected as her husband, whom she valued enough to en- 
dure with him this terrible existence. How good the things 
tasted that she cooked, and how different the dooryard look- 
ed from those of the other stations! Then she had a baby 
antelope, and the apertures that served as windows had bits 
of white curtains, and, altogether, I did not wonder that 
over the hundreds of miles of stage-route the Home Station 
was a place the men looked forward to as the only reminder 
of the civilization that a good woman establishes about her. 
There was an awful sight, though, that riveted my eyes as 
we prepared to go on our journey, and the officers could not, 
by any subterfuge, save us from seeing it. It was a disabled 
stage-coach, literally riddled with bullets, its leather hang- 
ing in shreds, and the woodwork cut into splinters. When 
there was no further use of trying to conceal it from us, we 



ORDERED BACK TO FORT HARKER. 379 

were told that this stage had come into the station in that 
condition the day before, and the fight that the driver and 
mail-carrier had been through was desperate. There was no 
getting the sight of that vehicle out of my mind during the 
rest of the journey. What a friend the darkness seemed, as 
it wrapped its protecting mantle about us, after the long 
twilight ended ! yet it was almost impossible to sleep, though 
we knew we were comparatively safe till dawn. At daybreak 
the officers asked us to get out, while the mules were watered 
and fed, and rest ourselves, and though I had been so long 
riding in a cramped position, I would gladly have declined. 
Cleanliness is next to godliness, and, one of our friends said, 
" With a woman, it is before godliness," yet that was an oc- 
casion when I would infinitely have preferred to be number- 
ed with the great unwashed. However, a place in the little 
stream at the foot of the gully was pointed out, and we took 
our tin basin and towel and freshened ourselves by this early 
toilet; but there was no lingering to prink, even on the part 
of the pretty Diana. Our eyes were staring on all sides, with 
a dread impossible to quell, and back into the ambulance we 
climbed, not breathing a long, free breath until the last of 
those terrible eighty miles were passed, and we beheld with 
untold gratitude the roofs of the quarters at Fort Harker. 

I felt that we had trespassed as much as we ought upon the 
hospitality of the commanding officer of the post, and beg- 
ged to be allowed to sleep in our ambulance while we remained 
in the garrison. He consented, under protest, and our wagon 
and that of Mrs. Gibbs were placed in the space between two 
Government storehouses, and a tarpaulin was stretched over 
the two. Eliza prepared our simple food over a little camp- 
fire. While the weather remained good, this was a very com- 
fortable camp for us — but when, in Kansas, do the elements 
continue quiet for twenty-four hours? In the darkest hour 
of the blackest kind of night the wind rose into a tempest, 
rushing around the corners of the buildings, hunting out with 
pertinacity, from front and rear, our poor little temporary 
home. The tarpaulin was lifted on high, and with ropes and 



380 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

picket-pins thrashing on the canvas it finally broke its last 
moorings and soared off into space. The rain beat in the 
curtains of the ambulance and soaked our blankets. Still, 
we crept together on the farther side of our narrow bed and, 
rolled up in our shawls, tried to hide our eyes from the light- 
ning, and our ears from the roar of the storm as it swept be- 
tween the sheltering buildings and made us feel as if we were 
camping in a tunnel. 

Our neighbor's dog joined his voice with the sobs and 
groans of the wind, while in the short intervals of quiet we 
called out, trying to get momentary courage from speech with 
each other. The curtain at the end of the ambulance jerked 
itself free, and in came a deluge of rain from a new direction. 
Pins, strings and four weak hands holding their best, did no 
earthly good, and I longed to break all military rule and 
scream to the sentinel. Not to speak to a guard on post is 
one of the early lessons instilled into every one in military 
life. It required such terror of the storm and just such a 
drenching as we were getting, even to harbor a thought of 
this direct disobedience of orders. Clutching the wagon- 
curtains and watching the soldier, who was revealed by the 
frequent flashes of lightning as he tramped his solitary way, 
might have gone on for some time without the necessary 
courage coming to call him, but a new departure of the wind 
suddenly set us in motion, and I found that we were spinning 
down the little declivity back of us, with no knowledge of 
when or where we would stop. Then I did scream, and the 
peculiar shrillness of a terrified woman's voice reached the 
sentinel. Blessed breaker of his country's laws ! He an- 
swered to a higher one, which forbids him to neglect a wo- 
man in danger, and left his beat to run to our succor. 

Our wagon was dragged back by some of the soldiers on 
night duty at the guard-house, and was newly pinioned to the 
earth with stronger picket-pins and ropes, but sleep was 
murdered for that night. Of course the guard reported to 
the commanding officer, as is their rule, and soon a lantern 
or two came zigzagging over the parade-ground in our direc- 



ORDERED BACK TO FORT MARKER. 381 

tion, and the officers called to know if they could speak with 
us. There was no use in arguing. Mrs. Gibbs and her boys, 
Diana drenched and limp as to clothes, and I decidedly moist, 
were fished out of our watery camp-beds, and with our arms 
full of apparel and satchels, we followed the officers in the 
dark to the dry quarters, that we had tried our best to decline 
rather than make trouble. 

It was decided that we must proceed to Fort Riley, as there 
were no quarters to offer us ; and tent-life, as I have tried to 
describe it, had its drawbacks in the rainy season. Had it 
not meant for me ninety miles farther separation from my 
husband, seemingly cut off from all chance of joining him 
again, I would have welcomed the plan of going back, as Fort 
Harker was at this time the most absolutely dismal and mel- 
ancholy spot I remember ever to have seen. A terrible and 
unprecedented calamity had fallen upon the usually healthful 
place, for cholera had broken out, and the soldiers were dy- 
ing by platoons. I had been accustomed to think, in all the 
vicissitudes that had crowded themselves into these few 
months, whatever else we were deprived of, we at least had a 
climate unsurpassed for salubrity, and I still think so. For 
some strange reason, right out in the midst of that wide, 
open plain, with no stagnant water, no imperfect drainage, 
no earthly reason, it seemed to us, this epidemic had sud- 
denly appeared, and in a form so violent that a few hours of 
suffering ended fatally. Nobody took dying into considera- 
tion out there in those days ; all were well and able-bodied, 
and almost everyone was young who ventured into that new 
country, so no lumber had been provided to make coffins, 
For a time the rudest receptacles were hammered together, 
made out of the hardtack boxes. Almost immediate burial 
took place, as there was no ice, nor even a safe place to keep 
the bodies of the unfortunate victims. It was absolutely nec- 
essary, but an awful thought neverthelesss, this scurrying 
under the ground of the lately dead, perhaps only wrapped 
in a coarse gray army blanket, and with the burial service 
hurriedly read, for all were needed as nurses, and time was 



382 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

too precious to say even the last words, except in haste. The 
officers and their families did not escape, and sorrow fell 
upon every one when an attractive young woman who had 
dared everything in the way of hardships to follow her hus- 
band, was marked by that terrible finger which bade her go 
alone into the valley of death. In the midst of this scourge, 
the Sisters of Charity came. Two of them died, and after- 
ward a priest, but they were replaced by others, who remained 
until the pestilence had wrought its worst ; then they gath- 
ered the orphaned children of the soldiers together, and re- 
turned with them to the parent house of their Order in 
Leavenworth. 

I would gladly have these memories fade out of my life, 
for the scenes at that post have no ray of light except the 
heroic conduct of the men and women who stood their 
ground through the danger. I cannot pass by those memo- 
rable days in the early history of Kansas without my tribute 
to the brave officers and men who went through so much to 
open the way for settlers. I lately rode through the State, 
which seemed when I first saw it a hopeless, barren waste, 
and found the land under fine cultivation, the houses, barns 
and fences excellently built, cattle in the meadows, and, 
sometimes, several teams ploughing in one field. I could not 
help wondering what the rich owners of these estates would 
say, if I should step down from the car and give them a little 
picture of Kansas, with the hot, blistered earth, dry beds of 
streams, and soil apparently so barren that not even the wild- 
flowers would bloom, save for a brief period after the spring 
rains. Then add pestilence, Indians, and an undisciplined, 
mutinous soldiery who composed our first recruits, and it 
seems strange that our officers persevered at all. I hope the 
prosperous ranchman will give them one word of thanks as 
he advances to greater wealth, since but for our brave fellows 
the Kansas Pacific Railroad could not have been built ; nor 
could the early settlers, daring as they were, have sowed the 
seed that now yields them such rich harvests. 

We had no choice about leaving Fort Harker. There was 



ORDERED BACK TO FORT HARKER. 383 

no accommodation for us — indeed we would have hampered 
the already overworked officers and men ; so we took our de- 
parture for Fort Riley. There we found perfect quiet ; the 
negro troops were reduced to discipline, and everything went 
on as if there were no such thing as the dead and the dying 
that we had left a few hours before. There was but a small 
garrison, and we easily found empty quarters, that were lent 
to us by the commanding officer. 

Then the life of watching and waiting, and trying to possess 
my soul in patience, began again, and my whole day resolved 
itself into a mental protest against the slowness of the hours 
before the morning mail could be received. It was a doleful 
time for us ; but I remember no uttered complaints as such, 
for we silently agreed they would weaken our courage. If 
tears were shed, they fell on the pillow, where the blessed 
darkness came to absolve us from the rigid watchfulness that 
we tried to keep over our feelings. My husband gladdened 
many a dark day by the cheeriest letters. How he ever man- 
aged to write so buoyantly was a mystery when I found 
afterward what he was enduring. I rarely had a letter with 
even so much as a vein of discontent, during all our separa- 
tions. At that time came two that were strangely in contrast 
to all the brave, encouraging missives that had cheered my 
day. The accounts of cholera met our regiment on their 
march into the Department of the Platte ; and the General, 
in the midst of intense anxiety, with no prospect of direct 
communication, assailed by false reports of my illness, at last 
showed a side of his character that was seldom visible. His 
suspense regarding my exposure to pestilence, and his dis- 
tress over the fright and danger I had endured at the time 
of the flood at Fort Hays, made his brave spirit quail, 
and there were desperate words written, which, had he not 
been relieved by news of my safety, would have ended in his 
taking steps to resign. Even he, whom I scarcely ever knew 
to yield to discouraging circumstances, wrote that he could 
not and would not endure such a life. 

Our days at Fort Riley had absolutely nothing to vary them 



384 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

after mail time. I sat on the gallery long before the time of 
distribution, pretending to sew or read, but watching con- 
stantly for the door of the office to yield up next to the most 
important man in the wide world to me. The soldier whose 
duty it was to bring the mail became so inflated by the eager- 
ness with which his steps were watched, that it came near 
being the death of him when he joined his company in the 
autumn, and was lost in its monotonous ranks. He was a 
ponderous, lumbering fellow in body and mind, who had 
been left behind by his captain, ostensibly to take care of the 
company property, but I soon found there was another rea- 
son, as his wits had for some time been unsettled, that is — 
giving him the benefit of a doubt — if he ever had any. 
Addled as his brain might be, the remnant of intelligence 
was ample in my eyes if it enabled him to make his way to 
our door. As he belonged to the Seventh Cavalry, he con- 
sidered that everything at the post must be subservient to my 
wish, when in reality I was dependent for a temporary roof 
on the courtesy of the infantry officer in command. If I even 
met him in our walks, he seemed to swell to twice his size, 
and to feel that some of the odor of sanctity hung around 
him, whether he bore messages from the absent or not. 

The contents of the mail-bag being divided, over six feet 
of anatomical and military perfection came stalking through 
the parade-ground. He would not demean himself to hasten, 
and his measured steps were in accordance with the gait pre- 
scribed in the past by his sergeant on drill. He appeared to 
throw his head back more loftily as he perceived that my 
eyes followed his creeping steps. He seemed to be reason- 
ing. Did Napoleon ever run, the Duke of Wellington ever 
hasten, or General Scott quicken his gait or impair his 
breathing by undue activity, simply because an unreasoning, 
impatient woman was waiting somewhere for them to ap- 
pear? It was not at all in accordance with his ideas of martial 
character to exhibit indecorous speed. The great and respon- 
sible office of conveying the letters from the officer to the quar- 
ters had been assigned to him, and nothing, he determined, 




THE ADDLED LETTER-CARRIER. 
385 



386 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

should interfere with its being filled with dignity. His coun- 
try looked to him as its savior. Only a casual and condescend- 
ing thought was given to his comrades, who perhaps at that 
time were receiving in their bodies the arrows of Indian war- 
riors. No matter how eagerly I eyed the great official envel- 
ope in his hand, which 1 knew well was mine, he persisted 
in observing all the form and ceremony that he had decided 
was suitable for its presentation. He was especially particu- 
lar to assume the " first position of a soldier," as he drew up 
in front of me. The tone with which he addressed me was 
deliberate and grandiloquent. The only variation in his regu- 
lation manners was that he allowed himself to speak before 
he was spoken to. With the flourish of his colossal arm, in 
a salute that took in a wide semicircle of Kansas air, he said, 
"Good morning, Mrs. Major-General George Armstrong 
Custer." He was the only gleam of fun we had in those dis- 
mal days. He was a marked contrast to the disciplined en- 
listed man, who never speaks unless first addressed by his 
superiors, and who is modesty itself in demeanor and lan- 
guage in the presence of the officers' wives. The farewell 
salute of our mail-carrier was funnier than his approach. He 
wheeled on his military heel, and swung wide his flourishing 
arm, but the "right about face" I generally lost, for, after 
snatching my envelope from him, unawed by his formality, I 
fled into the house to hide, while I laughed and cried over 
the contents. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE FIRST FIGHT OF THE SEVENTH CAVALRY. 

The first fight of the Seventh Cavalry was at Fort Wallace. 
In June, 1867, a band of three hundred Cheyennes, under 
Roman Nose, attacked the stage-station near that fort, and 
ran off the stock. Elated with this success, they proceeded 
to Fort Wallace, that poor little group of log huts and mud 
cabins having apparently no power of resistance. Only the 
simplest devices could be resorted to for defense. The com- 
missary stores and ammunition were partly protected by a 
low wall of gunny-sacks filled with sand. There were no logs 
near enough, and no time if there had been, to build a stock- 
ade. But our splendid cavalry charged out as boldly as if they 
were leaving behind them reserve troops and a battery of ar- 
tillery. They were met by a counter-charge, the Indians, 
with lances poised and arrows on the string, coming on swiftly 
in overwhelming numbers. It was a hand-to-hand fight. Ro- 
man Nose was about to throw his javelin at one of our men, 
when the cavalryman, with his left hand, gave a sabre-thrust 
equal to the best that many good fencers can execute with 
their sword-arm. With his Spencer rifle he wounded the 
chief, and saw him fall forward on his horse. 

The post had been so short of men that a dozen negro 
soldiers, who had come with their wagon from an outpost 
for supplies, were placed near the garrison on picket duty. 
While the fight was going on, the two officers in command 
found themselves near each other on the skirmish-line, and 
observed a wagon with four mules tearing out to the line of 
battle. It was filled with negroes, standing up, all firing in 
the direction of the Indians. The driver lashed the mules 
with his black-snake, and roared at them as they ran. When 

3S7 



388 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

the skirmish-line was reached the colored men leaped out 
and began firing again. No one had ordered them to leave 
their picket-station, but they were determined that no sol- 
diering should be carried on in which their valor was not 
proved. The officers saw with surprise that one of the num- 
ber ran off by himself into the most dangerous place, and 
one of them remarked, "There's a gone nigger, for a cer- 
tainty ! " They saw him fall, throw up his hands, kick his 
feet in the air, and then collapse — dead to all appearances. 
After the fight was over, and the Indians had withdrawn to 
the bluffs, the soldiers were called together and ordered back 
to the post. At that moment a negro, gun in hand, walked 
up from where the one supposed to be slain had last been 
seen. It was the dead restored to life. When asked by the 
officer, " What in thunder do you mean, running off at such 
a distance into the face of danger, and throwing up your feet 
and hands as if shot? " he replied, " Oh, Lord, Massa, I just 
did dat to fool 'em. I fot deyed try to get my scalp, thinkin' 
I war dead, and den I'd jest get one of 'em." 

The following official report, sent in from some colored 
men stationed at Wilson's Creek, who were attacked, and 
successfully drove off the Indians, will give further proof of 
their good service, while at the same time it reveals a little 
of other sides of the negro, when he first began to serve Un- 
cle Sam: 

" All the boys done bully, but Corporal Johnson — he 
flinked. The way he flinked was, to wait till the boys had 
drove the Injuns two miles, and then he hollered, ' Gin it to 
'em ! ' and the boys don't think that a man that would flink 
that way ought to have corporal's straps." 

In order to give this effort at military composition its full 
effect, it would be necessary to add the official report of a 
cut and-dried soldier. No matter how trifling the duty, the 
stilted language, bristling with technical pomposity, in which 
every military move is reported, makes me, a non-combatant, 
question if the white man is not about as absurd in his way 
as the darkey was in his. 




389 



390 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Poor Fort Wallace ! In another attack on the post, where 
several of our men were killed, there chanced to be some 
engineers stopping at the garrison, en route to New Mexico, 
where a Government survey was to be undertaken. One of 
them, carrying a small camera, photographed a sergeant ly- 
on the battle-ground after the enemy had retreated. The 
body was gashed and pierced by twenty-three arrows. Ev- 
erything combined to keep that little garrison in a state of 
siege, and a gloomy pall hung over the beleaguered spot. 

As the stage-stations were one after another attacked, 
burned, the men murdered and the stock driven off for a dis- 
tance of three hundred miles, the difficulty of sending mail 
became almost insurmountable. Denver lay out there at the 
foot of the mountains, as isolated as if it had been a lone 
island in the Pacific Ocean. Whenever a coach went out 
with the mail, a second one was filled with soldiers and led 
the advance. The Seventh Cavalry endeavored to fortify 
some of the deserted stage-stations; but the only means of 
defense consisted in burrowing underground. After the 
holes were dug, barely large enough for four men standing, 
and a barrel of water and a week's provision, it was covered 
over with logs and turf, leaving an aperture for firing. Where 
the men had warning, they could " stand off " many Indians, 
and save the horses in another dug-out adjacent. 

After a journey along the infested route, where one of our 
officers was detailed to post a corporal and four men at the 
stations when the stage company endeavored to reinstate 
themselves, he decided to go on into Denver for a few days. 
The detention then was threatening to be prolonged, and at 
the stage company's headquarters the greatest opposition 
was encountered before our officer could induce them to 
send out a coach. Fortunately, as it afterward proved, three 
soldiers who had orders to return to their troop, accompa- 
nied him. The stage company opposed every move, and 
warned him that he left at his own risk. But there was no 
other alternative, as he was due and needed at Fort Wallace. 
At one of the stage-stations nearest Denver a woman still 



FIGHT OF THE SEVENTH CAVALRY. 391 

endeavored to brave it out; but her nerve deserted her at 
last, and she implored cur officer to take her as far as he 
went on her way into the States. Her husband, trying to 
protect the company's interests, elected to remain, but beg- 
ged that his wife might be taken away from the deadly peril 
of their surroundings. Our officer frankly said there was 
very little chance that the stage would ever reach Fort Wal- 
lace. She replied that she had been frightened half to death 
all summer, and was sure to be murdered if she remained, 
and might as well die in the stage, as there was no chance 
for her at the station. 

Every revolution of the wheels brought them into greater 
danger. The three soldiers on the top of the stage kept a 
lookout on every side, while the officer inside sat with rifle in 
hand, looking from the door on either side the trail. Even 
with all this vigilance, the attack, when it came, was a sur- 
prise. The Indians had hidden in a wash-out near the road. 
Their first shot fatally wounded one of the soldiers, who, 
dropping his gun, fell over the coach railing, and with dying 
energy, half swung himself into the door of the stage, gasp- 
ing out a message to his mother. Our officer replied that he 
would listen to the parting words later, helped the man to 
get upon the seat, and, without a preliminary, pushed the 
woman down into the deep body of the coach, bidding her, 
as she valued the small hope of life, not to let herself be seen. 
As has been said before, those familiar with Indian warfare 
know well with what redoubled ferocity the savage fights, if 
he finds that a white woman is likely to fall into his hands. 
It is well known, also, that the squaws are ignored if the 
chiefs have a white woman in their power, and it brings a 
more fearful agony to her lot, for when the warriors are ab- 
sent from the village, the squaws, wild with jealousy, heap 
cruelty and exhausting labor upon the helpless victim. All 
this the frontier woman knew, as we all did, and it needed 
no second command to keep her imperiled head on the floor 
of the coach. 

The instant the dying soldier had dropped his gun, the 



392 



TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 



driver — ah, what cool heads those stage-drivers had ! — seized 
the weapon, thrusting his lines between his agile and muscu- 
lar knees, inciting his mules, and every shot had a deadly- 
aim. The soldiers fired one volley, and then leaped to the 
ground as the officer sprang from the stage door, and follow- 
ing beside the vehicle, continued to fire as they walked. 
The first two shots from the roof of the coach had killed two 
Indians hidden in the hole made by the wash-out. By that 




AN ATTACK ON A STAGE-COACH. 



means our men got what they term the "morale " on them, 
and though they pursued, it was at a greater distance than it 
would have been had not two of their number fallen at the 
beginning of the attack. 

This running fire continued for five miles, when, fortunately 
for the little band, one of the stage stations, where a few men 
had been posted on our officer's trip out, was reached at last. 
Here a halt was made, as the Indians congregated on a bluff 
where they could watch safely. The coach was a wreck. 
The large lamps on either side of the driver's seat were shat- 



FIGHT OF THE SEVENTH CAVALRY. 393 

tered completely, and there were six bullet-holes between the 
roof and the wooden body of the coach. When the door of 
the stage was opened, and the crouching woman lifted her 
face from the floor and was helped out, she was so unmoved, 
so calm, the officer and soldiers were astonished at her nerve. 
She looked about, and said, " But I don't see any Indians 
yet." The officer told her that if she would take the trouble 
to look over on the bluff, she would find them on dress pa- 
rade. Then she told him about her experience in the stage. 
The dying soldier had breathed his last soon after he fell into 
the coach, and all the five miles his dead body kept slipping 
from the seat on to the prostrate woman. In vain she pushed 
it one side; the violence with which the vehicle rocked from 
side to side, as the driver urged his animals to their utmost 
speed, made it impossible for her to protect herself from con- 
tact with the heavy corpse, that rolled about with the plung- 
ing of the coach. All this, repeated without agitation, with 
no word of fear for the remaining portion of the journey, 
which, happily, was safely finished, drew from our officer, al- 
most dumb with amazement at the fortitude displayed, a 
speech that would rarely be set down by the novelist who 
imagines conversations, but which is just what is likely to be 
said in real life — " By Jove! you deserve a chromo! " 

One troop of the Seventh Cavalry was left to garrison Fort 
Wallace, while the remainder of the regiment was scouting. 
The post was then about as dreary as any spot on earth. 
There were no trees; only the arid plain surrounded it, and 
the sirocco winds drove the sands of that desolate desert into 
the dug-outs that served for the habitation of officers and 
men. The supplies were of the worst description. It was 
impossible to get vegetables of any kind, and there was, 
therefore, no preventing the soldier's scourge, scurvy, which 
the heat aggravated, inflaming the already burning flesh. 
Even the medical supplies were limited. None of the posts 
at that time were provided with decent food — that is, none 
beyond the railroad. I remember how much troubled my 
husband was over this subject, when I joined him at Fort 



394 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Hays. The bacon issued to the soldiers was not only rancid, 
but was supplied by dishonest contractors, who slipped in 
any foreign substance they could, to make the weight come 
up to the required amount; and thus the soldiers were cheated 
out of the quantity due them, as well as imposed upon in the 
quality of their rations. It was the privilege of the enlisted 
men to make their complaints to the commanding officer, 
and some of them sent to ask the General to come to the 
company street and allow them to prove to him what frauds 
were being practiced. I went with him, and saw a flat stone, 
the size of the slices of bacon as they were packed together, 
sandwiched between the layers. My husband was justly in- 
censed, but could promise no immediate redress. The route 
of travel was so dangerous that it was necessary to detail a 
larger number of men to guard any train of supplies that at- 
tempted to reach those distant posts. The soldiers felt, and 
justly too, that it was an outrage that preparations for the 
arrival of so large a number of troops had not been perfected 
in the spring, before the whole country was in a state of siege. 
The supplies provided for the consumption of those troops 
operating in the field or stationed at the posts had been sent 
out during the war. It was then 1867, and they had lain in 
the poor, ill-protected adobe or dug-out storehouse all the 
intervening time — more than two years. At Forts Wallace 
and Hays there were no storehouses, and the flour and bacon 
were only protected by tarpaulins. Both became rancid and 
moldy, and were at the mercy of the rats and mice. A larger 
quantity of supplies was forwarded to that portion of the 
country the last year of the war than was needed for the vol- 
unteer troops sent out there, and consequently our Seventh 
Cavalry, scouting day and night all through that eventful 
summer, were compelled to subsist on the food already on 
hand. It was the most mistaken economy to persist in issuing 
such rations, when it is so well known that a well-filled stomach 
is a strong background for a courageous heart. The desertions 
were unceasing. The nearer the troops approached the moun- 
tains, the more the men took themselves off to the mines. 



FIGHT OF THE SEVENTH CAVALRY. 395 

In April of that year no deaths had occurred at Fort Wal- 
lace, but by November there were sixty mounds outside the 
garrison, covering the brave hearts of soldiers who had ei- 
ther succumbed to illness or been shot by Indians. It was a 
fearful mortality for a garrison of fewer than two hundred 
souls. If the soldiers, hungry for fresh meat, went out to 
shoot buffalo, the half of them mounted guard to protect 
those who literally took their lives in their hands to provide 
a few meals of wholesome food for themselves and their 
comrades. At one company post on the South Platte, a 
troop of our Seventh Cavalry was stationed. In the mining 
excitement that ran so high in 1866 and 1867, the captain 
woke one morning to find that his first sergeant and forty 
out of sixty men that composed the garrison, had decamped, 
with horses and equipments, for the mines. This left the 
handful of men in imminent peril from Indian assaults. The 
wily foe lies hidden for days outside the garrison, protected 
by a heap of stones or a sage-bush, and informs himself, as 
no other spy on earth ever can, just how many souls the lit- 
tle group of tents or the quarters represent. In this dire 
strait a dauntless sergeant, Andrews, offered to go in search 
of the missing men. He had established his reputation as a 
marksman in the regiment, and soldiers used to say that 
"such shooting as Andrews did, got the bulge on every- 
body." He was seemingly fearless. The captain consented to 
his departure, but demurred to his going alone. The sergeant 
believed he could only succeed if he went into the mining- 
camp unaccompanied, and so the officer permitted him to 
go. He arrested and brought away nine, traveling two hun- 
dred miles with them to Fort Wallace. There was no guard- 
house at the post, and the commanding officer had to exer- 
cise his ingenuity to secure these deserters. A large hole 
was dug in the middle of the parade-ground and covered 
with logs and earth, leaving a square aperture in the centre. 
The ladder by which they descended was removed by the 
guard when all were in, and the Bastile could hardly be more 
secure than this ingenious prison. 



396 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

Two separate attacks were made by three hundred Dog- 
soldiers (Cheyennes) to capture Fort Wallace that summer. 
During the first fight, the prisoners in their pit heard the fir- 
ing, and knew that all the troops were outside the post en- 
gaged with the Indians. Knowing their helplessness, their 
torture of mind can be imagined. If the enemy succeeded 
in entering the garrison, their fate was sealed. The attacks 
were so sudden that there was no opportunity to release 
these men. The officers knew well enough, that, facing a 
common foe, they might count on unquestionable unity of 
action from the deserters. Some clemency was to be ex- 
pected from a military court that would eventually try them, 
but all the world knows the savage cry is "No quarter! " In 
an attack on a post, there is only a wild stampede at the 
sound of the " General " from the trumpet. There is a rush 
for weapons, and every one dashes outside the garrison to 
the skirmish-line. In such a race, every soldier elects to be 
his own captain till the field is reached. I have seen the 
troops pour out of a garrison, at an unexpected attack, in an 
incredibly short time. No one stands upon the order of his 
going, or cares whose gun or whose horse he seizes on the 
way. Once the skirmish-line is formed, the soldierly quali- 
ties assert themselves, and complete order is resumed. It is 
only necessary to be in the midst of such excitement, to 
realize how readily prisoners out of sight would be forgotten. 

After the fight was over, and the Indians were driven off, 
the poor fellows sent to ask if they could speak with the 
commanding officer, and when he came to their prison for 
the interview, they said, "For God's sake, do anything in 
future with us that you see fit — condemn us to any kind of 
punishment, put balls and chains on all of us — but whatever 
you do, in case of another attack, let us out of this hole and 
give us a gun!" I have known a generous-minded com- 
manding officer to release every prisoner in the guard-house 
and set aside their sentences forever, after they have shown 
their courage and presence of mind in defending a post from 
Indians, or other perils, such as fire and storms. 



FIGHT OF THE SEVENTH CAVALRY. 397 

The brave sergeant who had filled the pit with his cap- 
tures, asked to follow a deserter who had escaped to a settle- 
ment on the Saline River. He found the man, arrested him, 
and brought him away unaided. When they reached the 
railway at Ellsworth, the man made a plea of hunger, and 
the sergeant took him to an eating-house. While standing 
at the counter, he took the cover from a red-pepper box and 
furtively watching his chance, threw the contents into the 
sergeant's eyes, completely blinding him. The sergeant was 
then accounted second only to Wild Bill as a shot, and not 
a whit less cool. Though groaning with agony, he lost none 
of his self-possession. Listening for the footfall as the de- 
serter started for the door, he fired in the direction, and the 
man fell dead. 

Our regiment was now passing through its worst days. 
Constant scouting over the sun-baked, cactus-bedded Plains, 
by men who were as yet unacclimated, and learning by the 
severest lessons to inure themselves to hardships, made ter- 
rible havoc in the ranks. The horses, also fresh to this sort 
of service, grew gaunt, and dragged their miserably fed 
bodies over the blistering trail. Here and there along the 
line a trooper walked beside his beast, wetting, when he 
could, the flesh that was raw from the chafing of the saddle, 
especially when the rider is a novice in horsemanship. 

Insubordination among the men was the certain conse- 
quence of the half-starved, discouraged state they were in. 
One good fight would have put heart into them to some ex- 
tent, for the hopelessness of following such a will-o'-the-wisp 
as the Indians were that year, made them think their scout- 
ing did no good and might as well be discontinued. Some 
of the officers were poor disciplinarians, either from inexpe- 
rience or because they lacked the gift of control over others, 
which seems left out of certain temperaments. Alas ! some 
had no control over themselves; and no one could expect 
obedience in such a case. In its early days the Seventh Cav- 
alry was not the temperate regiment it afterward became. 
Some of the soldiers in the ranks had been officers during 



398 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

the war, and they were learning the lesson, that hard sum- 
mer, of receiving orders instead of issuing them. There were 
a good many men who had served in the Confederate army, 
and had not a ray of patriotism in enlisting; it was merely a 
question of subsistence to them in their beggared condition. 

There were troopers who had entered the service from a 
romantic love of adventure, with little idea of what stuff a 
man must be made if he is hourly in peril, or, what taxes the 
nerves still more, continually called upon to endure privation. 

The mines were evidently the great object that induced 
the soldier to enlist that year. The Eastern papers had wild 
accounts of the enormous yield in the Rocky Mountains, and 
free transportation by Government could be gained by enlist- 
ing. At that time, when the railroad was incomplete, and 
travel almost given up on account of danger to the stages; 
when the telegraph, which now reaches the destination of 
the rogue with its warning far in advance of him, had not 
even been projected over the Plains — it was the easiest sort 
of escape for a man, for when once he reached the mines he 
was lost for years, and perhaps died undiscovered. 

Recruits of the kind sent to us would, even under favor- 
able circumstances, be difficult material from which to evolve 
soldierly men; and considering their terrible hardships, it 
was no wonder the regiment was nearly decimated. In en- 
listing, the recruit rarely realizes the trial that awaits him of 
surrendering his independence. We hear and know so much 
in this country of freedom that even a tramp appreciates it. 
If a man is reasonably subordinate, it is still very hard to be- 
come accustomed to the infinitesimal observances that I have 
so often been told are "absolutely necessary to good order 
and military discipline." To a looker-on like me, it seemed 
very much like reducing men to machines. The men made 
so much trouble on the campaign — and we knew of it by the 
many letters that came into garrison in one mail, as well as 
by personal observation, when in the regiment — that I did 
not find much sympathy in my heart for them. In one night, 
while I was at Fort Hays, forty men deserted, and in so bold 



FIGHT OF THE SEVENTH CAVALRY. 399 

and deliberate a manner, taking arms, ammunition, horses, 
and quantities of food, that the officers were roused to ac- 
tion, for it looked as if not enough men would be left to pro- 
tect the fort. A conspiracy was formed among the men, by 
which a third of the whole command planned to desert at 
one time. Had not their plotting been discovered, there 
would not have been a safe hour for those who remained, as 
the Indians lay in wait constantly. My husband, in writing 
of that wholesale desertion in the early months of the regi- 
ment's history, makes some excuse for them, even under cir- 
cumstances that would seem to have put all tribulation and 
patience out of mind. 

After weary marches, the regiment found itself nearing 
Fort Wallace with a sense of relief, feeling that they might 
halt and recruit in that miserable but comparatively safe post. 
They were met by the news of the ravages of the cholera. 
No time could be worse for the soldiers to encounter it. The 
long, trying campaign, even extending into the Department 
of the Platte, had fatigued and disheartened the command. 
Exhaustion and semi-starvation made the men an easy prey. 
The climate, though so hot in summer, had heretofore been 
in their favor, as the air was pure, and, in ordinary weather, 
bracing. But with cholera, even the high altitude was no 
protection. No one could account for the appearance of the 
pestilence; never before or since had it been known in so ele- 
vated a part of our country. There were those who attributed 
the scourge to the upturning of the earth in the building of 
the Kansas Pacific Railroad ; but the engineers had not even 
been able to prospect as far as Wallace on account of the In- 
dians. An infantry regiment, on its march to New Mexico, 
halted at Fort Wallace, and even in their brief stay the men 
were stricken down, and with inefficient nurses, no com- 
forts, not even wholesome food, it was a wonder that there 
was enough of the regiment left for an organization. The 
wife of one of the officers, staying temporarily in a dug-out, 
fell a victim, and died in the wretched underground habitation 
in which an Eastern farmer would refuse to shelter his stock. 



400 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

It was a hard fate for our Seventh Cavalry men. Their 
camp, outside the garrison, had no protection from the re- 
morseless sun, and the poor fellows rolled on the hot earth 
in their small tents, without a cup of cold water or a morsel 
of decent food. The surgeons fought day and night to stay 
the spread of the disease, but everything was against them. 
The exhausted soldiers, disheartened by long, hard, unsuc- 
cessful marching, had little desire to live when once seized 
by the awful disease. 

With the celerity with which evil news travels, much c,f 
what I have written came back to us. Though the mails 
were so uncertain, and travel was almost discontinued, still 
the story of the illness and desperate condition of our regi- 
ment reached us, and many a garbled and exaggerated tale 
came with the true ones. Day after day I sat on the gallery 
of the quarters in which we were temporarily established, 
watching for the first sign of the cavalryman who brought 
our mail. Doubtless he thought himself a winged Mercury. 
In reality, no snail ever crept so slowly. When he began his 
walk toward me, measuring his regulation steps with military 
precision, a world of fretful impatience possessed me. I 
wished with all my soul I was, for the moment, any one but 
the wife of his commanding officer, that I might pick up my 
skirts and fly over the grass, and snatch the parcel from his 
hand. When he finally reached the gallery, and swung him- 
self into position to salute, my heart thumped like the in- 
fantry drum. Day after day came the same pompous, mad- 
dening words: " I have the honor to report there are no let- 
ters for Mrs. Major-General George Armstrong Custer." Not 
caring at last whether the man saw the flush of disappoint- 
ment, the choking breath, and the rising tears, I fled in the 
midst of his slow announcement, to plunge my wretched 
head into my pillow, hoping the sound of the sobs would not 
reach Eliza, who was generally hovering near to propose 
something that would comfort me in my disappointment. 

She knew work was my panacea, and made an injured 
mouth over the rent in her apron, which, in her desires to 



FIGHT OF THE SEVENTH CAVALRY. 401 

keep me occupied, she was not above tearing on purpose. 
With complaining tones she said, " Miss Libbie, ain't you 
goin' to do no sewin' for me at all ? 'Pears like every darkey 
in garrison has mo' clo'es than I has " — forgetting in her zeal 
the abbreviation of her words, about which her " ole miss" 
had warned her. Sewing, reading, painting, any occupation 
that had beguiled the hours, lost its power as those letterless 
days came and went. I was even afraid to show my face at 
the door when the mail-man was due, for I began to despair 
alout hearing at all. After days of such gloom, my leaden 
heart one morning quickened its beats at an unusual sound — 
the clank of a sabre on our gallery and with it the quick, 
springing steps of feet unlike the quiet infantry around us. 
The door, behind which I paced uneasily, opened, and with 
a flood of sunshine that poured in, came a vision far brighter 
than even the brilliant Kansas sun. There before me, blithe 
and buoyant, stood my husband ! In an instant, every mo- 
ment of the preceding months was obliterated. What had I 
to ask more ? What did earth hold for us greater than what 
we then had ? The General, as usual when happy and ex- 
cited, talked so rapidly that the words jumbled themselves 
into hopeless tangles, but my ears were keen enough to ex- 
tract from the medley the fact that I was to return at once 
with him. 

Eliza, half crying, scolding as she did when overjoyed, vi- 
brated between kitchen and parlor, and finally fell to cooking, 
as a safety-valve for her overcharged spirits. The General 
ordered everything she had in the house, determined, for 
once in that summer of deprivations, to have, as the soldiers 
term it, one "good, square meal." 

After a time, when my reason was again enthroned, I be- 
gan to ask what good fortune had brought him to me. It 
seems that my husband, after reaching Fort Wallace, \va? 
overwhelmed with the discouragements that met him. His 
men dying about him, without his being able to afford them 
relief, was something impossible for him to face without a 
struggle for their assistance. A greater danger than all was 



402 TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 

yet to be encountered, if the right measures were not taken 
immediately. Even the wretched food was better than starva- 
tion, and so much of that had been destroyed, with the hope 
of the arrival of better, that there was not enough left to 
ration the men, and unless more came they would starve, as 
they were out then two hundred miles from the railroad. If 
a scout was sent, his progress was so slow, hiding all day and 
traveling only by night, it would take so long that there might 
be men dying from hunger as well as cholera, before he could 
return with aid. And, besides this scarcity of food, the med- 
ical supplies were insufficient. The General, prompt always 
in action, suddenly determined to relieve the beleaguered 
place by going himself for medicines and rations. He took 
a hundred men to guard the wagons that would bring relief 
to the suffering, and in fifty-five hours they were at Fort 
Hays, one hundred and fifty miles distant. It was a terrible 
journey. He afterward made a march of eighty miles in 
seventeen hours, without the horses showing themselves fag- 
ged ; and during the war he had marched a portion of his 
Division of cavalry, accompanied by horse artillery, ninety 
miles in twenty-four hours. 

My husband, finding I had been sent away from Fort Hays, 
and believing me to be at Fort Harker, a victim of cholera, 
determined to push on there at night, leaving the train for 
supplies to travel the distance next day. Colonel Custer and 
Colonel Cook accompanied him. They found the garrison in 
the deepest misery, the cholera raging at its worst, the gloom 
and hopelessness appalling. My husband left the two officers 
to load the wagons, and fortunately, as the railroad had 
reached Fort Harker, the medical and commissary sup- 
plies were abundant. It took but a few hours to reach Fort 
Riley. 

He knew from former experience that I would require but 
a short time to get ready — indeed, my letters were full of as- 
surances that I lived from hour to hour with the one hope 
that I might join him, and these letters had met him at Forts 
Hays and Harker. He knew well that nothing we might 



FIGHT OF THE SEVENTH CAVALRY. 403 

encounter could equal the desolation and suspense of the 
days that I was enduring at Fort Riley. 

My little valise was filled long before it was necessary for 
us to take the return train that evening. With the joy, the 
relief, the gratitude, of knowing that God had spared my 
husband through an Indian campaign, and averted from him 
the cholera ; and now that I was to be given reprieve from 
days of anxiety, and nights of hideous dreams of what might 
befall him, and that I would be taken back to camp — could 
more be crowded into one day? Was there room for a 
thought, save one of devout thankfulness, and such happiness 
as I find no words to describe ? 

There was in that summer of 1867 one long, perfect day. 
It was mine, and — blessed be our memory, which preserves 
to us the joys as well as the sadness of life ! — it is still mine, 
for time and for eternity. 



END. 



BRE.VTANO'8 I 
JookseUers & Stationers, 
Union Soiiiikl 



